Grace wasn't a morning person at all. That's why living in the same room with Chul in Herefordshire wasn't complicated. He, in all the year and couple of months they had lived together, hadn't bothered her at all, except when she started dating Mark, and it only happened once.
He had a daily routine: Wake up, wash face and teeth, put on his sports clothing, go running five laps around the field, get back, go to the café, leave breakfast for Grace on the little table in their living room, take a shower and start reading or watch something on his cell phone sitting in his recliner.
It hadn't been always peaceful. At the beginning one distrusted the other to the point that there was an invisible tape splitting their shared room in half. However, as they spent the months living together, with Baker's hard training, and camaraderie in the missions, they became friends.
Grace would make a prank or two to Chul on a monthly basis, and she wouldn't eat the breakfast he brought her the next day. You should never annoy who brings your food, neither paint his mask with a yellow marker giving it a catlike appearance, but she could not resist doing it when she saw him asleep on his recliner.
That's why it seemed strange when she heard her door being opened. No one, except for Chul, Mark and Yokai had entered her room. And it wasn't to take pictures of her while changing clothes, because if Masaru just had the thought, Yumiko would have already kicked him in the crotch until death.
"Morning, Eun Hye." Chul's voice was low as usual.
Chul only had entered her room two times, and they were extremely necessary.
She turned 180 degrees on her bed to see what was going on. His roommate held a wooden tray with both hands, carrying a plate with waffles, a little bit of honey, a spoon, a cup of coffee and a rose in a glass pot.
"Breakfast in bed!" She grabbed all her pillows, and put them on the headboard. She sat, already waiting. "Wait, you don't think I'm pregnant, do you?"
"Happy Birthday." He wore his black mask, but his expression could be seen through. He walked over, set the tray on her lap, and stroked her head. "I trust that Mark and you are taking the necessary precautions." he added. Then he turned and left, surely to continue with his routine.
"Hey, Kyung!" she exclaimed, causing Chul to peek into her room. "Thank you, you saved yourself from today's treat."
"Phew." The korean defender muttered ironically, and left.
Grace giggled. He cut a piece of the waffle with the spoon and brought it to her mouth, while unlocking his tablet, which was on her bedside table.
He had several unread messages, most of his fellow operators. Even Mike had the detail to write: "HBD." Although nobody had written to her more than Elena.
"Happy birthday, Grace. The 30s, huh? What will you do with Mute? Will you go eat? Will you go to a love hotel? Will you go meet his parents? Will he propose to you? I can tell Tachanka to auspice the wedding. You just tell me and consider it done."
Grace would never knew if Mira was joking or not. As always, a small answer like "xD" seemed to be enough. She looked for Mark's message, and then remembered that he came personally yesterday to say it. She sighed with just thinking about it. They had been together for a while but she still felt like a teenager in love.
It was at midnight. She had received Mark's message a couple of minutes ago saying:
"May I go to your place? Please?"
Grace thought he was going to give her his gift before anyone else. That's why, at exactly 00:00, she was already at the door, waiting. Chul apparently was asleep, because the living room was empty and dark. She turned on the light and waited.
As soon as she heard his footsteps approaching, she opened the door. Mark was still in his daily clothes, but to her liking, he came without the gas mask on his face. She did her best making him stop using it everywhere, but it was nearly impossible like her roommate. Luckily, Mark had progressed a bit.
They both looked at each other and remained silent. She was already used to it, he wasn't a very good talker. Mark took both of Grace's hands, gathered them together and kissed them both at the same time and muttered:
"I just wanted to be the first to wish you a happy birthday."
It was so many feelings for a young girl. She let go of him and with one leap caught his lips with hers. There was no one in the corridors of the second floor at that time, so there was no problem. Mark lost control as well and, grabbing her arse with force, lifted her to him, causing her to round his back with her legs. They were already beginning to kiss with more passion and desire when there was a loud throat clearing behind them. Both stopped dryly.
Grace released him instantly, and Mark stepped back as well. Both blushed and turned to look at the origin of the sound.
Chul was there, sitting in his recliner, with the air of a spiteful brother-in-law, staring at them both.
"Erm ... Good evening, Vigil." Mark gave a small bow quickly. "Bye, Grace." He held her right hand, giving her a quick caress. Then he went off.
Grace looked at Chul with narrowed eyes, then came back to her room slamming the door. A faint laugh could be heard from the living room. She was already planning how to take revenge today, when she received a message from Brit.
"I'll give you my gift later. It'll be big and awesome, so be ready."
Although that could be very suggestive, Mark didn't talked that way, neither even texted. Apparently that feature was totally James's counterpart. As she could only wait to see what it was, she put on pajamas and fell asleep.
The rest of the messages on her tablet were generic. Only a few stood out, like the photo of Julien working on his plates and Emma's drone next to him holding a small sign on it that said "Happy Birthday". With nothing more to see, she sent "Ty" to everyone, and Mark's a message notification automatically came out. She opened his chat and saw a voice message. He never sent voice messages.
A little bit expectant, she played it.
"Good morning, beautiful, put on your sexiest outfit 'cause tonight -" James's voice was interrupted by a smack that was heard on contact. "Ow!"
"Can you please stop taking others' things without permission?" Seamus's voice scolded him. "Oh, hi, Dokkaebi."
The audio ended there. The korean chuckled and sent a lot of laughing emojis and, leaving her tablet aside, began to eat the waffles.
Last year's February 2nd hadn't been pleasant at all. On her second mission in Rainbow, five operators including her, were sent for a hostage-extraction at a White Mask complex. It was going to be a walk in the park as Blitz commented when he arrived. They had no problem extracting the hostage. Sledge was a specialist in opening holes on the walls, Thatcher and Thermite to open larger holes on reinforced walls, Blitz to go to the front and terrorize the terrorists just by seeing the word "Polizei" on his shield, and Grace was for make hiding impossible for bad guys.
Everything went perfect, until the retreat with the helicopter. The old SAS member was carrying the hostage on his back, while everyone was alert. Grace decided to put her tablet on her chest, since it had started to malfunction and she couldn't see on CCTV that more terrorists were coming from the complex. They were a few meters from the helicopter when a bullet struck Thatcher on his back, but to everyone's luck, didn't touch the hostage. The shot knocked him to the ground, dragging the hostage. Grace turned around, drawing her handgun out. She made a few shots without aiming and didn't hit anything. Something told her this was her fault and Thatcher may would die.
In the course of three seconds, she could see how Blitz was reacting with a Flash, Sledge were throwing a frag grenade, and her own calf being pierced by another bullet. The blood came out profusely from it, as she had also fallen to the ground. The pain didn't matter, she seemed to feel like shit, about to lose consciousness.
"Sledge! Take Dokkaebi to the chopper! Now!" Blitz ordered, while deflecting a lot of shots fired towards them.
"Roger that! Hey, hey, korean, don't pass out. Stay with me okay?"
"Huh..." She was starting to have a blurry view. Sledge with a quick movement, carried her bridal style to the helicopter, where Thermite was applying the injection of Stim that Doc had given them before the mission, to use it in case of extreme emergency. Even though that liquid was almost magical, it wasn't going to take out the high-caliber bullet from Thatcher, who was breathing hard, unconscious.
More White Masks were coming out like rats from the compound. Blitz was already backing off, and Thermite started helping him by shooting the terrorists. Using his last flash, the german ran to the helicopter, letting the texan do a couple of headshots.
"Come on, come on, come on!" urged Sledge, who was also firing, covering Blitz's escape.
The helicopter began to raise up, out of danger. The German dropped to the surface of the helicopter's cabin, panting.
"That was close." he murmured, taking off his helmet.
"Not enough. Hey, Grace, don't fall asleep, okay?" Seamus shook her as she closed her eyes again. He grabbed a gauze from the frist aid kit and began to clean the wound.
He saw in detail the trajectory of the bullet. Luckily, it didn't touch the bone.
"Hey, Blitz, give me some bandages from the kit, please. You have a shoulder wound, in case you haven't noticed."
"What?" the German examined himself and saw the dark red stain he had there. "Ow. I didn't. I guess my shield isn't big enough."
"How's the old man doing?" the scotsman asked Jordan, after Elias threw him another gauze from the first aid kit.
"He'll live, but we need to take him with Doc to get that fucking bullet out of wherever it is." The texan looked at Blitz, who was taking off his vest. "What happened? Were we ambushed?"
"Have no idea, when I reacted, Thatcher was on the floor." Elias was cleaning his own wound, which was only a scratch on his shoulder. "I thought Dokkaebi could see from the cameras."
"Me too, but I dunno, something must have failed. Six couldn't have recruited her for nothing." Seamus said, applying pressure to stop her bleeding.
Grace was listening to the conversation, but still unable to speak. She felt a little guilty, even though Mike was alive. After twenty minutes of talking between the three others who even made the hostage talk about what their opinion of the current american government, while Seamus bandaged the wound, she fell asleep.
She woke up in the infirmary hours later. Gustave was sitting quietly on his swivel office chair, writing notes on the nearby table. She tried to get out of bed quickly, feeling a throbbing pain on her leg, making her whimper softly.
"Don't move." He turned around with his office chair. "You had a bullet wound in the leg, the hos..."
"Thatcher's fine?" she turned to where her wound was supposed to be. It was covered with bandages, different from the ones Seamus left.
"Wow, Grace Nam worrying about someone besides herself?" Gustave looked somewhat incredulous, and raised an eyebrow.
"I'm serious, Doc. Is he alright?"
"Relax, the bullet didn't hurt anything really important, but he will off the field for a couple of weeks. He was really lucky, and you too. Don't move much, your wound could open again. According to this." He took his notepad from his little table. "Vigil, your roommate, will come to pick you up at 8pm."
"Ok. Thank you, Doc." she lay on the bed. On the side table, there was only a cup of tea, her fake glasses, her tablet and a small chocolate cupcake, with a turned off candle in the center.
Her stomach roared as soon as he saw it. She had it half finished with one bite.
"Oh, by the way, happy birthday, Grace." Gustave had already turned around to continue writing.
"What, is it February 2nd already?" she replied, swallowing the last piece that remained.
"You spent almost a whole day sleeping, I was already considering serum if you didn't wake up in the next ten minutes." he turned around facing her. "Oh, I see you already ate it. Did you make a wish?"
She shook her head.
"That's bad luck." Gustave chuckled and circled back to his starting position.
She had spent all day of her birthday asleep, and she didn't even enjoyed resting. Besides, the only ones who had remembered were her own parents, wishing her a good day by message. Grace couldn't even thank them, because her tablet started to malfunction, again. She didn't blame the rest, they were probably more worried about Thatcher than for herself, or maybe they didn't even know it was her birthday.
So, when Chul came for her, all she was going to do is swallow her guilt, grab some desserts from the kitchen and watch some gore and cliche anime all night. And that's what she did.
These were occupational hazards, and worse if it was one in which the bullet wounds were involved. Of course she'd fix the Logic Bomb afterwards.
Back in the present, Grace had already finished her breakfast. A lot had happened since that day. Now she had friends, Chul, her older pseudo-brother and Mark, the closest thing to a boyfriend she had in many years. She expected a lot from today.
She stood up, placing the tray, plate and rose on aside, changed with her daily gray clothes. She made her bed and put her tablet in the special compartment on her chest. She went to the bathroom, just outside her room, and washed her teeth and face. When she got back, she put on her beanie and a hoodie as she knew it was going to be cold outside. Last but not least, she grabbed the wooden tray and went out to their mini-hall.
Chul, as always, was sitting in his recliner, this time watching a serie on his phone.
"Your birthday gift." He said, pausing the video, suddenly looking at her. He pointed to the table.
There was a big gift bag on the table. Grace sniffed it, trying to notice whether it was a trap or not.
"It's nothing to harm you. Just open it."
It was a sealed bottle of soju. Grace raised an eyebrow suspiciously. Her roommate more than anyone else knew she didn't handle alcohol.
"You've always asked me what soju is like and I've already brought it to you. A thank you would mean a lot, by the way."
"Thanks, I guess. I'll get a drink, just give me a..."
Chul shook his head, returning his attention to his cell phone.
"I hope you haven't forgotten the show you did the last time you drank vodka."
"Then why...?"
"For you, it's just to take a look. The liquor is mine."
Grace stared at him for twenty seconds, in which Chul didn't even flinch, or she didn't noticed. The mask covered him well. A little bit impatient, she left the wooden tray next to the bottle, took out her tablet and was about to activate the Logic Bomb on Chul's cell phone.
"I was kidding, but we'll drink it later." The korean defender raised one hand, obviously realizing what Grace was going to do.
"Hrm." she growled, grabbing her tray again and leaving the room.
She found herself on the way to the kitchen, finding a few operators, who congratulated her for having a year more / less of life. Something that was an achievement in this job.
However, she didn't find any SAS member, with the exception of Mike, who was drinking his coffee at one of the tables in the cafeteria and reading the newspaper.
She decided not to interrupt him, maybe Mark was busy or something. She looked outside a window behind the old man. It was all covered in snow. Maybe they were playing outside, sometimes SAS members had the heart of a ten-year-old child.
When she tried to get into the kitchen to wash the tray and stuff, it was locked. She knocked several times but nobody answered. With no idea of what to do with the tray, she left it by the door, hoping for someone to notice it.
She was about to exit the café, when suddenly Mike called her.
"Lassie, happy birthday." He gave her a finger gun with one hand, and the other held the newspaper. "If you're looking for the guys, they went to play outside with the snow, I think it would be good if you joined."
"Thanks, Thatcher. Sounds fun." she replied, giving him a genuine smile.
Grace took out her tablet on the way out of the building. There was no message from Mark, so she thought maybe he was playing with the others outside. After sending the "Ty" to Lera's message, she put it back in her chest. None were at the entrance of Hereford, only the guard watching the news on a tiny TV. She heard a huge battle roar near the training field, just around the corner.
Following the noise, Grace ended up witnessing an Alexsandr's speech, who was on top of a little mountain of snow.
"Remember comrades: Stay calm and don't try to be the hero. Trust your senses not just your tech. And the most important thing: Don't get yourselves killed. You ready?"
"Yes, Tachanka!" the battalion of 5 in line that was in front of him exclaimed.
The russian turned and started running. "FOR THE MOTHERLAND... !"
The moment they started to follow him, Grace recognized them: Dominic, Marius, Meghan, Ela and Maxim. All were carrying at least six snowballs, and surpassed Alexsandr in a matter of seconds.
Five other operators were running across the field, led by Seamus. She couldn't see them very well, but they also carried snowballs. After the first projectile was fired, Grace noticed Tina was sitting on the field's tribune with Timur, the latter with a sketchbook in possession, probably drawing.
She went there, caring about misdirected snowballs.
"Hey, Tina, Timur." she waved to them.
"Hi! Happy Birthday, Grace." the canadian trapper offered her fist as a friendly greeting, a gesture Grace returned.
Timur seemed to be focused, so he just mumbled his birthday greeting, without interrupting his drawing. Grace bent down to see his sketch, but there were only scribbles.
"According to him, only an artist would understand." Tina smirked, and then continued watching the snowball fight.
"You're Picasso now? Huh."
Grace sat down next to her and began to appreciate the show.
After a while and a headshot to Jager, only four of them remained on the field. In one side, there were Eliza and Siu Mein Lin, and in the other Maxim and Dominic. According to the rules, the snowball was valid as long as it wasn't destroyed in the air. It took three minutes for everyone to 'die', because they were so willing to win, that they drew their knives to defend themselves.
Eliza won, because even though Dominic aimed the ball twice to her head it didn't hit anything. It was too frustrating.
"I don't cheat, they're just quick reflexes." she spoke up, at Dominic, when she turned to assemble her team for a new round.
"I must admit, in VR practices I love seeing Eliza fall into one of my Welcome Mats." Tina muttered to the korean girl.
"They're a pain in the ass." replied Grace, who had also fallen a couple of times on them as well.
They spent a long time watching the matches, until Grace herself was called to play as well. Maybe it was her bad luck, as she "died" at the beginning of the round by a ball sent by Lera.
She was aiming it to Maxim, but he dodged it gracefully. She went and sat on the side of the field, to not disturb those who were still "alive", Grace took her tablet out of her chest and there was nothing about Mark in the chat.
She could see Seamus coming with a half-hearted step. His chest was covered of snow.
"Hi." He sat 30 centimeters away from her. "Mark left with James a while ago, if you're looking for them. They said they were going to be busy until lunch."
"Did they go out?" Grace asked, locking her tablet.
"Have no idea. James could have taken Mark anywhere and we would never know."
If they were working together for her gift, it could be something much better or something much worse. She expected the "much better" to be this case.
"Oh by the way." Seamus started rummaging through the pockets of his vest and pulled out a strawberry lollipop. "I know you like these. Happy birthday."
"Thank you." Grace removed the wrapper and instantly put the lollipop in her mouth. He was right, she loved sweets..
An hour later, the guys got tired and Timur finally had an understandable sketch. Most of them went back to the building to take a hot bath in their rooms, but Grace barely played two rounds, and in both "died" at the beginning, so she didn't feel the need.
In the hallway on the first floor in the distance, Grace saw Elena. She was peeking to the cafeteria.
"Hey, what's up, Mira?" Grace tapped her with a grin when she came closer, making her startle.
"Dios mío. Grace, you almost caused me a heart attack." she gave her a friendly punch on the korean's shoulder. "I'm seeing that Thatcher has been there for a while, as if he was watching over something."
"The kitchen is still locked, huh?"
"You also tried to get in?"
"Yep, it smells good from the outside. I was just curious."
"I just wanted to see what's cooking, but Thatcher managed to deftly expel me from there."
"He also told me "the guys" were outside, and It was only the hammerboy."
"You can't find your boyfriend?" Elena raised an eyebrow.
"AAAAARGHHH, JAMES!" an angry roar coming from inside the kitchen surprised the two girls.
"I think I already got an idea of what they're doing in there." Grace smiled, making Mira raise an eyebrow. Mark's voice was always the same when he scolded James's idiotness.
Smoke, the one in gaseous state, was coming out of the kitchen. The girls both looked at Mike, who was still reading calmly in the same place.
"These fooking kids." he muttered to himself, turning the page.
The kitchen door opened, Mark getting out first, putting on his gas mask, then James, jumping forward childishly, and finally Yokai, who hovered silently and stopped just above Mark's head. The two SAS members had an apron and the shorter had a chef hat on his head.
"You're-an-asshat." Mark panted, pushing his annoying roommate..
"It's not my fault, Marky, that oven is weird to my likes."
"You're lucky you burned the appetizers and not the cake because if... What are you looking at?"
James just noticed Elena and Grace. Quickly, he gave them a silly greeting and returned to the kitchen, dragging Mark with him. They left the door open for Yokai to enter and then locked it again.
"I guess she wanted to surprise you." said the spaniard, shrugging.
"He couldn't have done it better." replied Grace, smiling.
They both sat at a nearby table and waited. However, it wasn't long before lunchtime. Quickly the smell of smoke dissipated and they started smelling freshly cooked food again.
The other operators started arriving. Some greeted her, others ignored her presence. Not everyone were friendly. Ela, passing on her right, left her an inactive Grzmot mine on her table and then winked at her.
"It's always useful to have one as backup. Happy Birthday."
After thanking her, Grace examined it. She had a lot of ideas on how to use it. Most of them were to prank Chul, or maybe Mark. It could also be useful in the field, so it would be a better idea to keep it.
Once the cafeteria was full, the kitchen door opened again. Yokai entered the café floating, carrying a cake of chocolate on it, decorated with white frosting and many strawberries on the edges. It had two candles lit in the center, carrying the numbers 3 and 0 together.
At the sight of everyone, It brought the cake to Grace's table and landed. Elena started singing Happy Birthday. Tina, Jordan and Ela joined in, clapping too.
Although some remained seated, most stood up, perhaps because piece of cake was the prize. Grace could see Chul, standing at the door, moving his head with the rhythm.
Seconds later, Mark and James left the kitchen, already in normal clothes, one with his gas mask and the other still wearing the chef's hat. When they approached, James started singing dramatically, and kissed Grace's hand.
"Oh, here's the chef." Mira said, a little bit mocking.
Without thinking twice, Grace pushed James out of her way and hugged Mark. She wanted to kiss him but that fucking mask blocked her. So she gave him a little tap, right on where it was supposed to be his forehead.
"Hey, Dokkaebi, you have to blow out the candles." he said, pointing at the cake.
It bothered her a little. James called her "baby", "sweetie", "sweetheart" and so on, but Mark kept calling her Dokkaebi in public, even though their relationship was known by everyone but Marius, of course. Perhaps Mark had to show off the chivalry that characterized him, but sometimes it bothered her that he seemed to be too serious. However, she would never forget when he called her "love" for the first time. She smiled sheepishly just by thinking of it.
"This time make sure you make a wish!" exclaimed Gustave, behind Lera, who was staring hungrily at the cake.
She gave everyone a quick look. They looked like leopards waiting for the gazelle to be distracted. The korean chuckled and wished for the most cheesy thing she could thought of: "To be able to celebrate another year with all these rare people. My second family."
She blew out the candles, some sincerely applauding, and others just for commitment. The tinkling of plates and spoons were evident and plain, but, to everyone's surprise, Yokai began to hover up with the cake, and swiftly returned to the kitchen.
"Noice. It seems that the plan went well. "A voice was heard, entering the cafeteria.
Having surprised Chul, who went aside, Yumiko entered with Masaru's device on her wrist and the latter behind her. It seemed he had just woken up.
"I thought Echo was the one helping us" Mark said, as Yumiko pressed the last button on her device and then let out a tired sigh, leaning on the wall behind her.
"Me too. I was on the verge to throw a couple of stinky canisters to his room for stunning me so many times." James admitted, taking one of 'his babes' out of his pocket.
"Because you were doing the wrong thing, asshat. Also there were only two stuns, So don't be a jerk."
"Mark deserved them too. He almost screwed up the yakisoba!"
"You were pouring salt on the cake!"
"Shush. Shut up, both of you." Masaru, just went in the middle of them, yawning and rubbing his eyes. He was heading to the kitchen.
"Oh, no, you won't, lazy idiot." Yumiko frowned and tried to grab him, but he dodged her. In response she started controlling Yokai again.
"It's useless. He can only blast twice. I thought you already knew." He yawned. "Anyway, I'm responsible for the lunch." Masaru looked to everyone, while struggling with Yumiko, who managed to reach him. "Eat at once, fellas."
Almost instantly, most operators went to the kitchen, crowding the door. Yumiko realized that the kitchen could run out of food in matter of minutes, so she joined, forgetting Masaru completely.
"Is she serious?" Grace looked at Mark, raising an eyebrow. He shrugged, as always.
"Well, Marky wanted to make a cake for you a week ago." Seamus appeared from behind and with two quick moves removed Mark's gas mask.
Reacting late, the young brit wanted to get it back, but the scotsman managed to stretch his arm up, where he couldn't reach it.
"As the old man and I really suck at cooking, we left the job to James to help him. We would try to get you away from the kitchen, but uh... shit happens, and more frequently if James is involved." The shorter brit chuckled. "I planned the snowball battle to distract you, but I didn't plan you'd die almost instantly. Anyway, it was a surprise, wasn't it? "
Mark tried to let go of Grace just to recover his gas mask, but she tightened her grip.
"The thing about Masaru was unexpected. I thought that Japanese guy had no brain for anything other than his drone." Seamus continued playing with the gas mask, looking like an annoying big brother.
"He texted Mark last night and told him about yakisoba, and the recipe from internet. And he also said that he was going to help us. That creepy drone appeared in the morning, so we thought it was him from his room. I thought he was going to be our sensei just for today." James caught his canister exaggeratedly, faking enthusiasm.
"Keep dreaming, Smoke, and Yokai's far less creepy than you." Masaru had already left the tumult, holding a pair of chopsticks, eating noodles from a bowl.
"Anyway, I admit that it was an awesome idea. Good job." Seamus gave him a thumbs up.
"Hm hm." Masaru swallowed his food. "Sledge, I saw Thermite serving himself a lot, so mind about..."
Seamus suddenly sprinted to the crowd, and almost tackled everyone just to get inside.
"Fucking idiot! You know it was MY idea!" Yumiko had returned, having served yakisoba to herself, and gave a punch to Masaru's shoulder.
"Stop complaining, Yokai did the work. By the way, where did you leave him?"
"Oh!... I don't know. What happens if you turn off the wrist device?"
"He enters in hibernate mode. Wait, did he have the cake on himself? Oh sh..."
"HEY, DOKKAEBI! CAN I TAKE A SLICE OF THE CAKE?" Dominic yelled from inside the kitchen.
"Is the cake alright?" She replied, glaring at Yumiko, who grinned at her with a little trace of guilt.
"IT WAS ON THE TOP OF THE FRIDGE. MONIKA TRIED TO TAKE A BITE BUT... OW! RIGHT ON THE SOFT...!" his voice died.
"Uh, can you put it on Echo's drone please?"
"Already served, birthday girl!" This time was Elias doing the talking. Everyone knew that Monika's hits were hard.
Yumiko guided the drone with the cake to the korean operator, and stopped it just in front of her.
"Come on, Grace. Bite it." James grinned, catching his canister in his left hand, and getting close.
"Oh, now we're talking." Masaru said, and sipped loudly his ramen noodles.
"Nope." Grace shook her head and looked to the cake. It was so perfect, for a rookie of course. She needed to teach her boyfriend how to make better sweets.
"Mark, tell her to the cake bite. You made it." James tried again.
"What? It's tradition to do the cake bite. Bite it." Jordan, who had heard everything, stood up from his table not far from them, and started cheering.
In a blink of an eye, almost everyone here were cheering Grace to bite the innocent cake. Of course she knew what was going to happen, having James that close. So she had an idea.
She looked at Mark pleadingly, but he nodded to her, with a playful smirk. Then, Grace took her beanie, tossed it to the young brit, picked up a strawberry with her teeth and tried to move away quickly, but James was faster, and pushed her face onto the cake. He didn't do it that hard anyways.
When the korean girl pulled out, she could feel the frosting on her nose and cheeks and hear the laughs and cheers of everyone else in the cafeteria. But her objective has standing right next to her, already off guard.
She took a step forward him, with half of the red fruit out of her mouth. Mark didn't know how to answer. Things happened too fast. Luckily, someone unknown pushed him to her. Cough Seamus cough.
With a quick reflex he opened his own mouth a little bit, just for strawberry to get in. Kissing Grace in the process, he could taste the juice of the red fruit. She pulled out after a second, having chewed it in half. Her face was full of the cake's white cream, but she was radiant as always.
"Mate, you have cake on your nose." James pointed at him, whistling.
"Oh, I'll start slicing this pretty thing." Yumiko popped out of nowhere with a knife.
"You guys better get clean." Jordan said from a far table.
"Or get a room." Dom spoke up.
"Nice one." Elias bumped his fist to Dominic.
Grace and Mark again locked hands. The latter was red as tomato.
"Let's go." She said simply.
"Uh, Where to?" Mark asked, doubtful.
"Bathroom, duh? If you want to lick my face I won't complain though."
"Oh, alright."
The two left the cafeteria and went straight to their destination, and closed the door.
Luckily Mark always carried a handkerchief with him, so he wiped the cream out her face with it. He stared for a while to her clean face, stunned like the first time he saw her.
"Falling in love with me, again, Mark?" she smirked and licked his nose. She could take advantage of him now that they were alone.
"Like everyday, dear." He smiled back, but fell back a little. First thing first. Her beautiful face with no frosting on it.
She insisted on cleaning his face, so he let her. It wasn't that much.
When she thought he was clean enough, she threw herself to him, catching his lips. The passion of last night just resumed. He grabbed her backside firmly, making her moan a little. As response she bit his lower lip and started to undo his vest.
"Grace..."
"Mark..."
The korean girl knew this was soon going to be hot, so she locked the door with a swift move.
Almost instantly, someone knocked.
"Eun Hye, you in there?" Chul's voice was serious.
"Oh shite." Mark muttered. He stopped what he was doing, but his girlfriend didn't even noticed.
He pursed his lips, interrupting her kisses. She stepped back a little, annoyed.
"What do you want, Kyung?" Grace said and bit her lip, and looking at Mark. Both were blushing.
"Let's drink soju. To be honest, I couldn't wait for the night."
"Uh, can it be later?"
"Nope. Smoke saw me with this green boy. I estimate he'll come here in three minutes.."
"I thought you were always in everyone's blind spot." Grace mocked. Mark let out a silent chuckle.
"Well, not always. Need toilet paper or what? Hurry up."
Grace didn't want to stop this lovey dovey session as she just had cornered Mark. In any case, Grace had him for herself all the afternoon and night to do whatever she wanted to.
"I'm not alone here, Kyung." Grace took a deep breath.
"Oh. Uh, this is awkward."
"Indeed." she replied, grabbing Mark's cheek. Both started doing what they undid.
"Hi, Mute. I thought I had THE talk with you."
"We were just cleaning each other dirtiness." Grace almost instantly noticed how bad it sounded. Mark lowered his face, hoping for the best.
"Luckily I brought three glasses. Can you please get out?" Chul knocked again.
"Luckily? You saw us get in here, didn't you?" Grace opened the door and got out. Mark followed closely. This was very uncomfortable and he wanted his mask back. Fucking Seamus.
Grace crossed her arms, leaning on her boyfriend's shoulder.
"Do the honors." Chul handed her the bottle and an opener.
"Oh, charming." she said sarcastically, receiving and opening it. "Now serve me, Batman."
"You'll never get bored of it, huh?" She passed it back to her roommate, who had already her glass ready to serve.
Chul had said the truth. He had a third glass in his vest hidden and served Mark as well. The brit was self-conscious but grabbed the filled glass.
"Cheers." Grace muttered, raising her glass.
"For Eun Hye." Mark said out of nowhere, hitting his glass lightly with hers. He was struggling with himself and the urge to run away, but managed to ignore it.
Well, that was the reason she fell in love with him. He was very unpredictable, even more than James. Nope, she was exaggerating, not that much. James was almost a psycho.
"For Eun Hye." Chul raised his glass the last.
She drank it, maybe a little too fast. Her vision got blurry for a second.
"Another one?" the korean defender offered.
"Nah, I'm fine for now." She knew what was going to happen if she had another.
"Just kidding. This year won't be like the last." they hit each other empty glasses.
"I hope so. Right, Mark?" She looked at her silent boyfriend, who embraced her.
"Hey, not so cheesy, I'm still here." Chul turned and started to walk away, in the direction of the café.
Grace was ready to corner Mark again.
"Before you return back to your 'duties', mind that you didn't make a lot of food, Mute."
The birthday girl wanted to at least taste her boyfriend's cooking. Locking hands again, they followed Chul.
"I've heard some operators will take you out tonight." the masked korean said, gazing at the two lovers.
"Really?"
"Girls' night I think it's called. No boyfriends, of course." Vigil's eyes narrowed. He was grinning inside his mask.
"Aw..." Grace stuck out her tongue when she saw her roommie's expression. Chul shrugged, and speeded up his pace.
"Don't worry. I'm yours all the afternoon if necessary." Mark winked at her.
"Haha, well said. Thanks for the cake by the way." She gave him a quick peck on the cheek.
"Don't mention it. I love you, Grace."
She couldn't help it. She stopped and stared at his face, curving her lips upwards.
"Hm? What's wro...?"
Grace hugged him more tightly than before. His ribs almost cracked.
"I like being close to you." She muttered with her ear on his chest, listening to his heartbeat.
"I. Just. Noticed." He panted. "Grace. Air. Please."
She loosened the hug, but didn't let go.
"Shouldn't we go to get lunch?" Mark suggested as Grace was still there after two minutes.
"No. You'll feed me later anyways."
"Uh... So, Can I put on some music?"
"Yep." Mark took out his phone, searched and tapped the screen.
"Cause you and I, we're good together, oh
You always get me feeling better and I know you stay by my side-
You make me feel much better
'Cause girl we're good
'Cause you and I, we're good together, oh
You always get me feeling better and I know you stay by my side-
You make me feel much better
'Cause girl, we're good together, oh"
Both followed the rhythm. Grace passed her arms around his neck, and Mark's hands were on her waist. They circled and circled, just seeing each other face.
"Stay by my side"
Their foreheads connected. Nothing could ruin that moment.
"Stay by my side"
She cuddled into Mark's chest, feeling his embrace. He kissed her head lightly closing his eyes.
"I love you too, Mark Chandar."
A low click was heard from the cafe's door. The brit instantly was alerted. He raised his gaze and saw James with his phone taking photos.
"Oh! Hi, love birds! Please continue, this would make a nice intro in your wedding video."
Mark didn't know what to answer. None of the words he thought of seemed to be appropriate. Grace didn't want to move either.
He didn't want to be exposed, neither hurt his girlfriend's feelings.
Mark managed to let go of her and gave a quick peck to her lips. Unexpectedly, he started chasing James, who led him outside of the building.
Before leaving, he cried:
"SEAMUS WILL BE MY BEST MAN!"
Grace laughed while watching them run. Then, she let out a sigh filled with love for what she just heard. Marriage? A girl can dream, right?
This could be easily the best birthday of her life. She remembered Homer Simpson's phrase.
"This is the worst day of my life"
"The worst so far."
Well, in this case, it was the best.
During her daydream, Seamus peeked outside the café.
"Uh." He simply said. "What?"