“You still haven’t told me what is it that you’ve made?” said Su Han to Su Ran as he looked at her very seriously.
“Uh, dinosaur?”
“This is a dinosaur?”
“Does it not look like one?”
“Uh, then what are these nubs over here?” asked Su Han as he pointed at a bunch of lighter colored pile of icing.
“The spines on the back of the dinosaur.”
“Where’s its head then?”
“This right here.”
“Then where’s the tail.”
“Right here,” said Su Ran as she pointed at a protrusion on the edge of the cake.
Su Han: Ugh…
He thought that was just the byproduct of her failing to even out the icing.
“I think it looks like a dinosaur,” said Su Ran as she looked over the cake one more time.
She followed the picture that she found online. At most it was just a little bit off was all.
“Mmmhmm.” Su Han had, once again, nodded against his belief.
“Ahem. Whatever, it’s just a birthday cake. It still serves its purpose.” Feeling that this subject had quickly reached the end, Su Ran decisively switched to something else.
“Go change out of your uniform quickly, wash your hands, and come eat.”
“Okay.”
By the time Su Han returned after he had finished washing his hands, Su Ran had already placed colorful candles on the “cake”.
“1, 2… 13. Perfect.”
“Let me.” Su Han took a step up and took the lighter from Su Ran when she was about to light the candles.
The hemisphere cake with a round of candles scattered over it looked almost comical.
Except that, as the room light was turned off and the candles being lit up one by one, the atmosphere in the room became very homey all of a sudden.
Even the green cake became less ugly when recover in the soft glow of the candles.
“My son is turning 13 today. It’s so wonderful.” Su Ran lamented as she looked at the teenager sitting across from her through the candlelight.
In the original novel, after the accident when he was 12, Su Ran had no idea of knowing what it was like when he turned 13.
That being said, how Su Han was right now was pretty good.
The teenager was still young and still had some childishness on his look but his composure and fierceness were already beginning to show.
And, she wasn’t sure whether it was her imagination, Su Ran felt that as much as Su Han was still cool like he was when they first met, she seemed to notice a hint of smile on him from time to time.
“It’s just a birthday. What’s so different about it?” said Su Han softly as he turned away.
It must be the result of the candles. Why else would his eyes felt astringent and uncomfortable when he looked at the candles.
“Not the same of course. After today, you are one year closer to becoming an adult.
“C’mon. Quickly, make your wish. Perhaps it will come true next year.”
“Birthday wishes is something you tell to a child,” said Su Han nonchalantly but he still put his hands together and closed his eyes as he was told.
Mmm. All he wished for was to keep things the way they were at home right now.
“What kind of a wish did you make?” asked Su Ran curiously when she saw Su Han opened up his eyes.
Hearing that, Su Han frowned a little and said very seriously, “It is not going to work if you say it out loud.”
“Haha, okay, then I’ll make a wish too.”
Su Ran did not close her eyes but looked at Su Han as she said, “Son, you are turning 13 after toady. I hope that in the year to follow you will be happy every day, make more friends, and get along well with your schoolmates…”
Su Ran’s blessing in her soft and tender voice rang inside the little room. Atmosphere like this could be very infectious.
“Ahem, time to eat,” said Su Han all of a sudden as he grabbed the chopsticks and lowered his head.
“Hey, wait. I am not done yet!
“One last thing,” said Su Ran as she added, “I hope that when my son runs into the girl that he likes, his feelings will be reciprocated. And that her family will like you as well. And I also hope that all the friends that you make in the future are sons of landlords.”
“What does that mean?”
“A fool and his money will soon part. Hahaha.” One sentence from Su Ran was enough to make all the homey feeling from a while back turn into an illusion.
Su Han, “……”
“Go on, now blow the candles out!”