Chapter 1- The Strawberry Cake
Lying flat on his back, Jae-Hyun held a worn notebook up towards the ceiling and flipped it open.
Some of it’s pages were torn, while the others remain untouched.
Yet it was full of dreams.
Some dreams are crossed out.
While most of them were not.
Among them was the dream that he must never forget:
“Eat a Strawberry cake on my birthday.”
Even though it was a small dream.
Three years had passed, and the dream remained unfinished.
Jae-Hyun stared at the word for a few seconds before letting out a quiet laugh.
“A Strawberry cake..”
His lips curved into a bitter smile.
Most of the people can buy this simple dream.
But what can one do when during that time of every month, some other important factors show up.
House rent.
Electricity.
Groceries.
His mother’s medicine.
Somehow, a slice of cake always ended at the bottom of the list.
“Maybe next year,” he murmured.
The notebook slipped and landed on his forehead.
“OW !“.
Rubbing his forehead, Jae-Hyun sat up.
Morning sunlight filtered through the dusty curtains.
The room was small—barely large enough for a bed, a desk, and a narrow wardrobe.
Peeling wallpaper curled away from the corners.
An old fan hung from the ceiling, rattling whenever it was switched on.
On the desk sat a stack of bills he had been avoiding for days.
Jae-hyun sighed.
They weren’t going to pay themselves.
He reached for his wallet.
A few crumpled bills.
A handful of loose coins.
Just to enough to get through another day.
Hopefully.
With a sigh, he got to his feet and began getting ready for work.
Before locking up the door, his gaze drifted back to the notebook resting on the bed.
The words were still there.
“Eat a Strawberry cake on my birthday.....”
He quickly looked away and locked the door.
The hallway smelled faintly of damp walls and several foods for breakfast.
As he locked his door, a loud crash echoed from Room 203.
He froze.
Then groaned.
“That 203 brat again”
Saying that, he rushes for his work.
As he hurried down the stairs, the old boarding house creaked beneath his feet.
Outside, the morning air was cool and fresh.
People we heading for work.
Students rushed past with their bags slung on their shoulders.
Jae-Hyun pulled his jacket tighter around himself and checked the time.
Late.
Again.
“Great.,” he muttered.
Picking up the pace, he headed towards the convenience store.
He burst through the back door, quickly threw his jacket into a locker, and slipped his uniform vest over his shoulders.
He was out of breath, but there was no time to rest.
He quickly swapped places with his coworker at the counter just as the door chimed.
A daughter with her father arrives at the convenience store.
She points at the strawberry cake that was in the glass display and says to her father, “I want to eat strawberry cake today!,” she cheered.
The father smiled and said “Okay, just this once”.
Forcing a professional smile, he scanned the item and accepted the payment.
“Thank you,” Jae-Hyun murmured, handing over the receipt and the cake.
After paying at the counter, the father handed her the treat, and led her over to the window seating area to eat it.
While watching them, Jae-Hyun remembered only one thing, his “Strawberry cake” that he hoped he would get this year.
Time flew way too fast.
Jae-hyun’s shift ended.
After a quick nod to the next shift worker, Jae-hyun’s gaze fell on the last piece of the strawberry cake.
He swallowed hard, his fingers tightly gripping the few wrinkled bills inside his pocket.
He knew he shouldn’t.
Every single won needed to go toward rent and basic groceries.
But the image of the little girl cheering flashed through his mind, mixing with the heavy weight of the three empty years in his notebook.
“Just this once,” he thought, echoing the father’s words.
Reluctantly, he counted out his change and bought the cake.
On the walk back to his apartment, he held the small plastic container like it was made of fragile glass.
A rare, genuine smile tried to break onto his face.
He was finally going to cross it off his dream list this year.
But just a block away from his building, a massive figure came stumbling around the street corner blindly.
The man was wearing a dusty jacket covered in drywall patches, his face half-hidden under a low cap.
He looked completely dead on his feet, dragging his heavy footsteps with his eyes glued to the pavement.
Before Jae-Hyun could even register the movement to step aside, the giant slammed a heavy shoulder right into him.
The force knocked Jae-Hyun entirely off balance.
The plastic box slipped from his stiff fingers, flipping through the air before hitting the dirty concrete sidewalk upside down.
The plastic cracked.
The perfect white cream and bright red strawberries smeared into a flattened, unrecognizable mess on the pavement.
Jae-Hyun went rigid.
His breath caught in his throat as he stared down at the ruined cake.
Three years of waiting, gone in a single second.
“Watch where you’re going,”the stranger muttered in a deep, terribly tired voice, barely even slowing down as he kept shuffling past.
Jae-Hyun’s fists clenched tightly at his sides as he turned his head around to glare at the man’s retreating back.
He didn’t know who the reckless jerk was, but he would never forget that dusty jacket.
