cake「 mark 」

1

the first cake arrived at mark's door during his second semester of college in korea. he'd almost tripped over it as he walked in after a long shift at zumiez.

he was puzzled at first, wondering why on earth someone would deliver a cake to his doorstep. not that he was complaining, though. he picked the pink box up, examining the pretty, reflective floral designs. "jinyoung's custom cakes" was printed in english at the center of it in pretty cursive font. since when did bakeries deliver? was the only thing on his mind as he carried the box to the kitchen. he tried to open it, but there was tape holding it together. grumbling, mark picked at it, wishing he had nails.

it was then that his roommate, jackson, walked in the grab a bottle of organic tea from the fridge. mark rolled his eyes; jackson had an uncanny talent of conveniently showing up the second food was present.

"hey, what's that?" jackson asked in english as they always did when they were alone as he shut the door and noticed mark huddling over the unknown object.

"just a cake," mark shrugged.

"a cake?" jackson's eyes lit up like a christmas tree, tone going up in pitch like an excited child. "from who?"

"not sure," mark replied flatly, resisting the urge to roll his eyes. "hand me that knife, would you?" he asked, nodding to a knife on the other side of the kitchen. jackson fulfilled his request without hesitation, and mark opened it.

pulling the lid off, mark and jackson were a bit surprised.

the cake was normal enough with smooth, white icing and cute decorations created with pastel blue icing and dark blue sprinkles around the edges of the rectangular shape; however, in the middle, instead of a regular, generic "happy birthday" or "congratulations" or some other festive term, "i'm sorry for the things i said when we played mario kart," was written in bubble letters.

jackson and mark laughed a bit at that.

"well, i don't think this is either of ours," jackson stated the obvious, clasping a hand on the skinnier boy's shoulder. "unless you're keeping a copy of mario kart hidden from me. in which case, our friendship is over."

mark smiled and shook his head. "nah, i wouldn't do that to you, man."

"you better not, bitch."

"what should we do with it?" 

"hm," jackson mumbled, taking the cake out and examining the box. "i don't see any information about who it's from or anything... let's just keep it."

"keep it?"

"well, yeah," jackson shrugged casually. "why not? free cake!"

"but this belongs to someone," mark said hesitantly.

"if it were really that important to them, don't you think there'd be some sort of return address or something?" jackson deadpanned as he opened an overhead cabinet. "besides, it's more against my morals to waste a perfectly good cake."

"what are you doing?" mark asked suspiciously as jackson came over with two plates, plucking the knife from mark's hand pointedly.

"getting a piece," jackson said bluntly, cutting into the cake. "you want some or not?"

mark eyed his friend's movements for a moment, contemplating it. seeing no other option, he sighed. 

"fuck it. sure."