As the Christmas special movies and animations played, the time slipped away.
Before long, I felt Siyeon moving restlessly on top of me.
“Uuum…”
Mumbling, like a sleep-talker.
I shifted my gaze from the TV to Siyeon.
It seemed she had woken up, lifting her head slightly, but her eyes were still barely open.
Seeing her looking like a newborn cub in my arms, I playfully pinched her chubby cheeks as if molding clay.
Unlike when we were in elementary school, her bouncy, thick resilience was gone, but she felt soft and sunk in like clay.
After rubbing her cheeks with my palm several times, Siyeon slowly opened her sleepy eyes.
After our eyes met, it was I who spoke first.
“Did you wake up? You were sleeping well.”
“Yawn… yeah.”
Rustling, she brushed aside her messy hair and got up from the couch.
Even with her groggy state, she nodded in agreement.
I felt the weight of two heavy sacks pressing down on me.
With that pressure gone, a lingering warmth remained.
Perhaps because Siyeon naturally runs warm, parts where we touched were damp, making her clothes a little darker.
Leaving behind the dampness, I got up to solve the first meal that had been postponed because Siyeon had dozed off.
“How about having bread for a meal?”
“Yeah…”
It was 1:05 PM on a holiday, just past the time to fancy up some grand dish, feeling it would be quite bothersome.
Siyeon nodded as if anything would do.
In line with that easy-going attitude, I took out a bag of frozen bread from the air fryer and laid them out evenly, one by one.
Following the neatly laid edges, I carefully squeezed out mayonnaise to create a square shape and cracked an egg on top of each slice of bread.
As the contents of the broken eggs barely stayed within the confines of the mayonnaise, they became trapped inside.
After repeating this process three times, I picked up a fork and tapped the yolks to break them, sprinkling a little salt and sugar on each yolk evenly.
I closed the air fryer and set it to the highest temperature for about 7 minutes without preheating.
When the timer beeped, I didn’t take it out right away but left it for about 5 minutes.
The residual heat would continue to cook the eggs.
The mascots were huddled appropriately in my room, snacking on treats and keeping clear of the meals meant for us humans.
As I fiddled with my smartphone, Siyeon, now fully awake, noticed the ticking timer.
Having woken after more than 12 hours of sleep, it seemed her mind cleared up quickly.
Whether she heard the timer or not, she quietly approached the air fryer and asked, looking over at me.
“Is it done?”
“We need to leave it for about 5 more minutes.”
After answering Siyeon’s question while glancing at my smartphone, I looked at the clock on the screen.
It was 1:16 PM.
When I turned on the timer, there were 8 minutes, so I could open the air fryer around 1:20.
Seeing how she was asking impatiently, it seemed her stomach was growling.
To satisfy that hunger with precision, I made sure to state my plan.
“Take it out with a spatula at 20 minutes.”
“Okay!”
After she responded, Siyeon settled herself by the sink and resumed playing on her phone.
I took out the remaining vegetable steamed buns from the fridge, placing them in a bowl before putting them in the microwave.
Cooking for just 2 of us meant 3 minutes.
Even though the outsides were really hot, I had to heat them up this much to avoid them being cold inside.
In the lazy atmosphere of a Christmas holiday lunch, the taste was excellent, regardless of our sluggishness.
As December slipped by, almost unnoticed,
Rudolph, Santa, a white Christmas, and red and green decorations.
After the glitzy marketing frenzy of the festivities began to fade post-Christmas.
The year of the cat, the year of the rabbit, the year of the dog…
Even without wondering what year it is, those new year animal marketing campaigns started popping up everywhere for promotional purposes.
Lying in bed, I thought to myself how tough it must be to run a business.
“It’s already the new year.”
On the dawn of January 1st, transitioning from December 31st.
At the very moment the clock struck midnight.
Though a significant time for the new year, it felt like just another ordinary day.
…That’s what I thought for a moment.
While I was deep in a game chat on my bed, messages suddenly stopped sending.
Was it a data issue? Even when I checked my search engine, the internet was just fine.
It must have been an overwhelming flow of messages for the new year since the messenger app had become unusable.
“Well, isn’t this just annoying…”
With that, I stepped away from the chat I had been engrossed in, returning to reality.
I heard footsteps shuffling in the living room.
The only people who walk around the house are Siyeon and me.
Was she coming out for a drink? I looked towards the direction of the door…
Then I heard the sound of the fridge door opening.
“Was dinner not enough?”
That thought crossed my mind as I wondered about Siyeon’s actions.
However, it had been the last day of the year, and we celebrated by ordering oven chicken to fill ourselves up…
“Should I make a late-night snack?”
As those thoughts danced in my head, the door burst open.
With a quick flick of the light switch, I knew it was far too soon to check if I was still asleep.
“Ugh…”
My eyes were squinted, still sensitive and accustomed only to the dim light of my smartphone.
Sudden brightness hit me like a ton of bricks.
It reminded me of that time in elementary school when Gomteng shone a flashlight directly into my eyes.
“Surprise!”
“Ta-da!”
“Congratulations!”
Struggling to open one eye, the forms and voices of Siyeon and the mascots appeared as expected.
Surprise and congratulations—what’s this all about?
In the midst of the confusing situation, I quietly got out of bed and squinted my eyes, trying to adjust to the light.
In Siyeon’s hands were a bright blue cake box representing a franchise.
“Oh.”
The remembrance of my birthday this lifetime came to me.
By now, it should have become familiar, yet it felt strange celebrating my birthday on the very first day of January.
This bizarre feeling of my birthday not feeling like my birthday—who would understand that?
“Marie, happy birthday!”
“Uh, um…”
My response was a muddled mixture of confusion and surprise, appropriately mixed with a realization that was just a beat late.
If only I had remembered it was my birthday, I could have put on a more exaggerated surprised reaction…
If only I hadn’t felt that regret, Siyeon, who was watching me with satisfaction as I made surprised bunny eyes, turned on the kitchen light and pulled out a chair, pushing me to sit.
“When did you prepare all this?”
“Hehe, surprised, right?”
While I rubbed Siyeon’s cheeks, I asked her, marveling at how she had grown up since it was no longer like elementary school days, with her hiding things clumsily.
When did she manage to buy a cake and hide it at home, considering she’d turned down cake even during Christmas?
While I felt happy about Siyeon growing from the child I had raised since kindergarten, it felt strange that her actions were starting to drift outside my anticipated range.
“Tada!”
Like opening a surprise box, she pulled the cake out with a mix of excitement.
The type of cake on the receipt was a cookies and cream cake.
If you include the toppings, it’s unmistakably a NoXX cake, but perhaps due to the controversy, they were selling it without saying its name directly.
“I remembered you loved this cookie from last time!”
“Yeah, this might be alright…”
A cake that seemed relatively less sweet than a chocolate-covered one.
While I admired Siyeon’s choice of cake and reminisced about how it would taste in my mouth,
The two mascots, regardless of it being my birthday, buzzed around excitedly near my head.
“Quick, let’s cut it!”
“It looks delicious!”
“Hey, are we not singing a birthday song?”
As they clamored, I noticed a bit of disappointment in Siyeon’s voice, asking why we weren’t singing the birthday song.
It didn’t matter to me, but if Siyeon wanted to sing, that was a different story.
“Why, do you want to sing?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, just a sec…”
When I asked if she wanted to sing, she nodded as if it was obvious, responding enthusiastically.
Thinking she still had a hint of childhood innocence, I rummaged inside the cake box.
There were thin, long birthday candles, a plastic knife for the cake, and a small cute paper bag containing two matches.
As I handed her the candles, the mascots helped to stick them one by one on the cake.
After confirming that they were all in place, I picked up a match and struck it against the red side of the paper bag, igniting it quickly.
One crucial point when lighting the cake is to be swift and accurate; if you take too long, you might burn your fingers.
After successfully transferring the small flame from the match to the candles, I blew out the match’s flame gently.
That marked the beginning of the song.
“Alright, on three-”
“Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you!”
After that, everyone knew the song, saying I love you while mentioning the name and congratulating once again.
Following cheers and applause from the onlookers, when the birthday person blows out the candles with a single breath, it’s over.
After placing the blown-out candles back into the paper bag, we cut the cake with the plastic knife that came with it, and the cake tasting time began.
Just as I expected, the chocolate taste was not overwhelmingly sweet, and I found it delightfully addictive, enough to eat two pieces each while sitting.
“I really can’t go to bed early.”
After stuffing so much cream, bread, and snacks in my mouth till dawn, there was no way I could sleep right away.
I figured I would leisurely digest my meal and aim to sleep around 2 AM, when suddenly, I felt vibrations coming from my tracksuit pocket.
“Huh?”
The messenger app that had been frozen seemed to have revived; several vibrations came rushing in one after another.
With the fork still in my mouth as I was eating cake, I wondered if there were any important messages and opened the app.
Among them were several birthday gifts sent by my school friends.
The one sent right when midnight struck was from Tae Hyun.
It seemed like it had just arrived, overshadowed by the flood of new year’s texts.
However, the content of that gift was none other than a cake.
“Too late, isn’t it?”
I appreciated it, but with all the congestion from the messenger app, it was a delayed gift.
I sent a grateful reply, but no matter how much it was my birthday, two cakes were a bit much.
What a shame; the honor of the first birthday cake should belong to Siyeon.
Well, what can I do? I’ll just have to save it for when I crave something sweet.
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