That afternoon, when Su Han got home from school, he was immediately enveloped by a burnt smell the second he opened the door.
Su Han nervously looked around the house, in particularly in the direction of the kitchen, and temporarily let out a sigh of relief when he didn’t notice any obvious burned marks.
Then he finally noticed the other changes inside of the apartment.
Scattered all over the empty room were balloons of different sizes. Taped on the big, white wall was balloons that spelled out Happy Birthday and there were a few dishes on the table.
It was still the familiar restaurant and the familiar smell, but the take out had been carefully dished out after they were brought home.
Then Su Ran walked out from the kitchen.
Unlike how she usually dressed at home, Su Ran had on a pretty set of outfits.
When she saw Su Han, a big smile appeared on Su Ran.
“Happy birthday, son!”
“You–!”
So you remembered!!
Su Han’s eyes widened as he looked at Su Ran.
“So? Are you surprised or are you surprised?” asked Su Ran as she winked at Su Han.
She wasn’t blind. She saw how her son looked like he was begging for attention when he left the house this morning. She had to try very hard not to laugh out loud so she could give him a pleasant surprise!
“It’s alright.” After a long while, Su Han finally suppressed his surprise, turned away, and said coolly.
Nevertheless, the teenager wasn’t able to suppress the corners of his mouth from rising up.
“What is this?” asked Su Han as he pointed at the item on the table suddenly.
From its size and shape, it was obviously the large and heavy delivery box that had been forgotten in the corner of their apartment a while back.
Except that it had now been wrapped in a layer of lavender floral gift warp and there was also a large and a small bow taped to it.
“It’s birthday present for my son!”
Hearing that, Su Han’s eyes lit up.
“But you can’t open it just yet.” Su Ran immediately stopped him when Su Han was about to rip it open.
One only unwraps the gift at the very end. That is the tradition.
“Oh.”
He was, nevertheless, very curious what was inside of it.
That being said, Su Han still tried his best to put on a I-don’t-care-about-it-at-alllook and turned away from it.
“What is that then?” asked Su Han as he pointed at someone on the table that was covered up by a lid.
Somehow, he had a bad feeling about it.
“Oh, this. A birthday cake.” Su Ran paused before she added, “I made it myself!”
“Ta-dah~” said Su Ran as she lifted up the lid as though it was some sort of a big reveal.
After the lid was removed, a hemisphere-shaped, green object sitting on a plate entered into Su Han’s vision.
“What do you think?” asked Su Ran.
“Ugh, alright, I guess,” replied Su Han, somewhat stunned.
This was probably one of the very few instances in Su Han’s life where he had said something that he didn’t mean. Unfortunately, the teenager was obviously very bad at lying and he couldn’t control the stiffness on his face.
“Aye, never mind. You don’t have to say that. You can just say that you find it ugly,” said Su Ran as she let out a sigh.
The website only said “Cake Making for Newbies”. It didn’t say it was going to be so difficult. She really had tried her best already.
“No.” Seeing the disappointment on Su Ran, the teenager was frantic and quickly explained himself, “It’s quite good already.”
“I think it’s pretty good.” Added Su Han.
Su Ran: Oh, son. Your eyes had already betrayed you.
“Oh yeah? Take a look and see if you can tell what it is supposed to be?” said Su Ran as she blinked at Su Han while pointing at the “cake”.
It wasn’t unlike a teacher picking on a student who had been dozing off in class.
“Ugh, earth?” A hemisphere of the earth?
“No. Who would make half an earth?”
“No? It sure looks like one to me. What are these patches supposed to be then? I thought it’s a continent,” said Su Han as he pointed out parts of the cake in different colors.
“Of course not!” She just didn’t mix the colors well enough so that what it ended up looking like.
“Then it’s a turtle?” That was the only other green thing that he could think of.
“A turtle? How did this look like a turtle to you?” said Su Ran. Then, she, too, stared at her own work.
Ahem. It did sort of look like one.
“Oh, never mind. It doesn’t matter what it looks like. Doesn’t change that fact that it’s a cake,” said Su Ran as she waved.