Hetaera • MYG

Twenty Six

"Happy birthday to you was created for you, ah, it'll take a little time, might take a little crime to come undone.. hey child stay wilder than the wind and blow me into cry.. who do you need, who do you love, when you come undone? Words, playing like deja vu, like a radio tune, I swear I've heard before.. can't ever keep from falling apart at the seams, can I believe you're taking my heart to pieces?" 'Come Undone' Duran Duran

~~

"Do you know how long I was waiting in line for this? Who knew Floriad was so popular? I didn't even know the Marriott had a bakery at all." Wonjoong slid the small white box with the delicate red and cream ribbon crisscrossing the top into Yoongi's hands as he stepped out of the car.

"Red velvet, white rosebud icing? The ones with the tiny green petals. Not the ones with the big open flowers." Yoongi frowned looking down at the box that somehow looked tiny and insignificant in his palm and he started to hand it back to his second.

"Careful! And yes, of course I got the right cupcake, relax you're being weird." Wonjoong grabbed Yoongi's wrist as he shoved the box back toward him.

"I'm not being weird, when I ignore her you're saying I'm being cold, make up your damned mind." Yoongi steadied the box in his hands and walked past his friend and into the hallway behind the garage, his shoes loud on the pale tile.

As he turned to go down the steps Wonjoong detoured into the kitchen, no doubt to raid the fridge or do whatever else he did out of Yoongi's sight. He took the steps by two until he realized he was jostling the cupcake box, so he slowed down with a grimace. Glancing at his watch his mind was already drifting to the meeting that night making him force his attention back to the present. This would take only a couple minutes and the least he could do was be present during it.

He knocked gently against the fourth door he reached on the hall, he smiled then immediately stopped. That felt wrong so he tried to relax his face and must have looked fairly stupid when the door opened a moment later his face somewhere between the two expressions. Iseul looked up at him with red rimmed watery eyes.

"Happy Birthday Iseulie." Yoongi held the cupcake box out stiffly, his brain tripping over itself to try to adjust to the new situation. Why was the girl crying? Did all teen girls cry on their sixteenth birthdays? Did they cry on all their birthdays? Certainly he knew teen girls were volatile, but he'd not known Iseul to be anything but exceptionally sunny.

He glanced behind her into the room, it was a small but comfortable apartment space with a sleeping area, low dining table, and kitchen off to one side. He wondered if someone else was there that had upset the girl, but the room was empty except for Iseul. Her mother, Choi Hana, had left almost six months ago, moved to Busan to take care of a sick family member for an indefinite period of time. Yoongi's mother persuaded him to let Iseul stay, she'd lived in this apartment for over a year, had been attending the prestigious school, getting amazing grades and making friends. There was nothing for her in Busan except the same poverty and failed education she'd had before moving in the mansion.

"Are you missing your eomma?" That must be it, Yoongi said gently, his hand patting her shoulder but all that did was cause a burst of fresh tears from the slim girl and a look of outrage.

"I'm not a baby!" Iseul turned into the room and ran over to her sleeping pad flopping down, face in the pillow sobbing.

"Shit." Yoongi whispered under his breath, barely a sound, but he grit his teeth looking over his shoulder back into the hall. Maybe he should get Baekyunssi, the housekeeper, she was rather serious but a more maternal option surely than him? As he stepped toward the sleeping area abandoning the cupcake box on the kitchen table he was already regretting his decision. He wondered if he called his own mother how quickly she could arrive. Not soon enough, Iseul was curling into a ball and making terrible sounds despite the pillow muffling the noise.