Karma ━━ Jake Sim

𝟮𝟬 ͏͏͏͏͏͏ ͏͏͏͏͏͏ ͏͏͏͏͏͏⠀Sweet Revenge

"Shit!" He slaps a palm to his forehead, "I forgot to wish my parents a Happy Chuseok this morning!"

"Dumbass." Jake chuckles, biting another cherry off its stem.

Sunghoon gives him a glare as he picks up the call and presses the phone to his ear. "Ah," He feigns nonchalance to the receiver, "Chuseok jal bonaeseyo!"

Whatever comes next wipes the grin off his face and replaces it with a grimace. In no time at all, he's covering the speaker and mouthing a 'Sorry' to Sujin and Jake before excusing himself out of the room in a flurry.

"Um, Sunghoon-"

"Wait-"

He pops his head back in for a brief moment to whisper-shout, "No fighting while I'm gone!"

And just like that, they're left alone.

Together.

In a room containing knives.

Maybe Jungwon was right to worry...

★

͏͏͏͏͏͏ ͏͏͏͏͏͏ ͏͏͏͏͏͏⠀⠀ The next fifteen minutes pass in a silence thick enough to slice through.

It drags on; seconds feel like minutes, and minutes feel like hours. But Sujin and Jake have begrudgingly abided by Sunghoon's parting message - for now, at least - limiting their interactions to a bare minimum for the sake of civility.

They've come to a mutual agreement to steer clear of one another and work on their own things until Sunghoon returns, with Sujin taking care of the chocolate ganache frosting, and Jake busying himself with a cherry filling. This deal's been working out for them so far, both too caught up in their own little worlds to pay too much mind to anything else. And if there's anything that makes standing in a room with your least favorite person at least a little more tolerable, it's got to be chocolate and cherries.

Alas, Jake feels the need to send it all crumbling down.

"Hey, Sujin?"

She grits her teeth.

The last "Hey, Sujin?" Jake had hit her with was no less than 5 minutes ago, when he'd considered it oh-so necessary to disturb her peace with some dumb factoid about the origins of black forest cake. As if she gives a flying fuck. At this point, Sujin's convinced he's just toying with her for his own childish entertainment.

Jerk.

"What?" She snaps, not even bothering to look up from the silky chocolate mixture in front of her.

"Uh... You're gonna want to see this."

Sujin lets out an exasperated sigh, "Unless someone's dying or the goddamn pope is outside our window, no. I really doubt I do."

"I'm serious!" Jake urges, "Come over here for a second."

Finally loosening her hold on the wooden spoon in her hand, Sujin tears her eyes from the frosting to see he's crouched by the oven, peering in through the glass with a frown.

Fine.

She walks over with the mixing bowl nestled in the crook of her right arm, and squats down to catch a glimpse of whatever the boy's so fussed about.

"Oh, shit."

The cakes are nothing short of a hot mess, and that's putting it lightly. The batter is impossibly flat and uneven - bubbling at the surface and producing the ugliest lumps and bumps in all the places lumps and bumps shouldn't even exist.