Eva crossed her legs over one another. She had been right in determining that Magnolia was a beautiful town to spend time in. It probably ranked second to none other than her own hometown Era, and that was only so because she was biased. Otherwise, she didn’t know how to explain the fact that she kept coming back to Magnolia over and over again. Four days had passed since she left for Crocus. She came back, after stopping by Era, only yesterday to meet with her modeling manager who, much to Eva’s irritation, had scolded her for hours without stopping.

Now she sat in one of the white wooden chairs in a cake shop flipping through a thin book of cakes and pastries and other items. She wasn’t exactly sure what the place was called since she hadn’t bothered to read the board when her manager dragged her in. But she heard, from her overly excited manager, that it was famous for everything sweet and effectively teeth rotting. Just to appear happy, she tried to giggle and blush excitedly whenever she pointed to a picture in the menu, making her mouth form a big ‘O’. Though honestly, she couldn’t care less about any of them.

Behind her, only a few steps away, was her manager engaged in a deep and seemingly meaningful conversation with the person who ran the shop. All she remembered was that this person’s name started with an O and that he wore a cap. They chatted away about Eva’s modelling career and how they were finally going to shoot an ad for the shop. The cameraman, to her left, was already setting up the lighting and equipment.

This was her punishment for evading work for almost a month and it was first mentioned last night between her manager’s furious scolding. She had, like always, ignored it only until she was rudely forced to wake up early that morning with a loud alarm clock beeping away next to her ears. It didn’t dawn on her until she walked with her manager to the shop and found the cameraman either.

To say the kind of tantrum she wanted to throw right now was huge, would have been an understatement of Eva's irritation. If it wasn’t for the fact that something at the back of her head nagged to stop giving her manager so much trouble, she was pretty sure she wouldn’t be sitting there like an obedient doll.

Eva placed her chin on the back of her right hand, still pretending to be interested in the pastries. Her manager was still speaking with the baker though from the sound of it, she guessed that everything was going well. The cameraman didn’t give her much attention as he worked with his equipment either. All in all, she sat in complete silence, getting increasingly bored as each second ticked by. Between the dull moment, Eva even started tapping her feet on the floor but as quietly as possible.

Her eyes wandered all over the shop. In her opinion, there were too much pink. Pink, white, and strawberries seemed to be the these because everywhere she looked, she could see either of these colors. The walls were painted white while at each ends there was a pink wave like pattern that resembled melted frosting dripping down. The couch that laid to a side was pink and resembled something like a strawberry. The curtains were white with strawberry patterns on them. To say the least, everything made Eva want to jump out and run without looking back.

It wasn’t until she heard the rattling of the door that she looked up from the book. To her surprise, she found someone through the glass pushing and pulling on the locked door. Eva parted her lips as to say something but closed it as she wasn’t sure what the right words would be in this situation. But concerned with what the boy was trying to accomplish, Eva stood up to tell him to stop. The door was locked and she didn’t know what kind of fool would actually not realize it. However, Eva was taken aback again when the strange guy just yanked the door open, breaking the lock along with it.

Eva wasn’t the only one who jumped in between the loud noise. The baker’s mouth hung open as he looked at the most likely broken door and then at the boy and back at the door again. He seemed like he wanted to say something but like Eva a few minutes ago, he was also starting to resemble a fish. Unexpectedly enough, her manager didn’t look as shocked as the man he was talking to. He looked at the boy as if he had seen it many times and though Eva wouldn’t admit it, she knew her manager must have developed this immunity while being with her.

And as the men all looked shocked at the boy who barged in screaming for cupcakes, Eva was trying her best to stop herself from laughing her head off. It wasn’t every day that she saw someone like that and it was quite refreshing, honestly. She moved before anyone else did. “Hello,” she began with a hint of a chuckle behind her voice. “I’m sorry but the shop is closed for a photo shoot today. And,” her eyes fell to the broken door and half missing wall, “that door was supposed to be locked”.

Olly snapped awake following her. “You! Why did you do that for?” he exasperated. “Since you seem to have broken my door and my wall, you’re either going to have to pay me or help us with the shooting,” the baker seemed to have decided as he laid down his terms. Eva wasn’t sure if all those words were going to go the right way into this guy. The boy was ignorant enough to not see that the door was locked. She wouldn’t be surprised if he screamed out for more cupcakes. But Eva did think that this boy could make her day worthwhile.

Eva, in her twenty one years of life have had many encounters. Most of them quickly left as they came. They were all fleeting with nothing really making a mark on her. She had met people that that she could forget immediately and she had met people that left enough impression on her mind to last in her memory longer. However, they didn't last forever. As soon as their value was lost in her, she lost any interest in them and they faded, completely erased from her past. It is only a few people that ever managed to stay in her mind the longest. And, it was only possible because they shifted in her mind like question marks, not really fitting in anywhere. They were puzzles that Eva liked to solve. This boy, now standing in front of her, was proving to be one such existence.

She wasn't sure why she was interested. Maybe it was the innocence that he showed? She didn't know. All she did register was that he was one of those people she liked to make a puzzle out of solve. People were strange creatures in the fact that within every bit of their action hid their real self. A twitch of their eyes, every curve of their lips, every look and every turn, they always told something or the other about the character. Eva loved to observe and reveal them. This one might just be more simple than she thought, though.

Eva didn't even have to turn around to know that Olly and everyone else behind her was already looking at the boy with gaping mouths. Eva, on the other hand, was trying very hard, almost failing, not to laugh at their faces. It was incredible how a word from the boy about helping them by 'bonking' with his sword rather than 'shooting' had made the whole room act like fishes inside a bowl.

'How fun,' Eva thought as she turned to Olly. "How about we get him to help with our photo shoot? We can do more natural shots with someone like him around. I think it would be fun!" a little bit of persuasion was all it took for both her manager and Olly to agree. Great, now we could let the fun begin.

Everything happened quickly after that. Olly was still on edge but everyone else was doing their job with no other words exchanged. For a short moment, the clatter of euipment and shuffling of hurried feet were all that could be heard in the room. They were going to have the photo shoot in Olly’s kitchen, something about the baker wanting to show his pride and joy to the world and having natural photographs or the other that she wasn’t quite sure of. She had let Hanase san take care of all that complicated stuff. So instead of a normal photo shoot where your background would most likely be nothing but a white wall, they actually had a real background with real things as props.

Eva stood, leaning, behind the perfectly clean kitchen counter with her hands crossed over one another on top of it. Finn stood to her side, seemingly lost as he was from the moment he stepped in. If any of the previous moments were something to go by, Eva had a feeling that they would have a lot of fun that day. In fact, it seemed that she guessed right because the next question he asked had her throwing her head down on her hands, laughing like crazy. Her shoulders shook visibly as laughter rumbled inside of her, everyone else turning to look at them with raised eyebrows and puzzled eyes. It had been a while since Eva had laughed so genuinely. As surprised as she was, she quickly decided that she liked the boy quite a bit.

“I’m sorry,” she tried forming words between her giggles, “But don’t worry, you won’t get hurt in a photo shoot. We are simply going to take some photos and go home,” she explained or at least consoled the boy “Normally, we would wear pretty clothes and make difficult poses with the aim of looking good alone. Today, though, since we have you who is less experienced, we can just gonna do something more natural and less artificial. I think…” she trailed off, tilting her head in deep thought.

She suddenly turned to her manager and the baker. “Olly! How about we just make it really natural and bake a cake together. Finn and I. The photos can be taken in between our effort. Not only will that make it more natural, but we can also convey the joy of making sweets and stuff to the public,” she threw the idea up there and saw both her manager and Olly turn to each other. They seemed to discuss a few things until Olly disappeared behind a door to another room. He came back with a few supplies afterwards, a bag of flour, sugar, some eggs, and all those things that they would need to bake.

“Well, how about it?” she turned to Finn.

Bake a cake …Did she know how to do that? Eva visibly paled. She didn’t even notice Finn going red beside her because she was busy raking her brains for accurate steps to baking a cake. Her uncertain eyes wandered over to her manager who, to her irritation, seemed to be on the verge of laughing his head off. Damn him. He knew very well on the kind of lifestyle Eva lived. She wasn’t pampered but she was able to get anything she wanted with a click of her fingers. How would she ever know how to bake?

“Uh…uhm,” she looked up at the white ceiling, expecting all the answers to her predicament to be there. Olly seemed to have got the wind of it because he chuckled, turning Eva a little red, and went back into the room again. For a moment, she heard the faint sound of something shuffling and moving until he came back, blowing onto a dust covered cookbook. “I used to use this back when I was just learning to bake haha,” he chuckled again and handed the book over to Eva who was still trying to not think about the embarrassing sight she had become. Why did she even suggest baking when she didn’t know how to do it herself?! Ugh.

Eva flipped through the book, not even turning to Finn so as to slowly recover her dignity. “You can use that book while baking. It has all sorts of sweet recipes,” Olly continued, interrupting Eva to grab the edge of the book and flip through the pages himself, stopping at page no: 23 where it showed a nice picture of a nice sponge cake with chocolate frosting. “This isn’t the simplest in the book but even a beginner should be able to make it if they follow the instructions correctly,” Olly advised, moving back as the slightly amused cameraman began setting up his camera again.

She scratched the tip of her nose, still a teeny bit embarrassed, but turned to face Finn with the book in her hand. “What do you think?” she asked him, handing over the book. “We are going to set up all our ingredients first. If I read it out, can you find them and bring them here for me from there?” she asked, pointing to where Olly had placed all the ingredients he found at.

“Cake flour, baking powder, milk, unsalted butter, eggs, sugar, salt, vanilla extract,” she listed, turning around every now and then to check if Finn was grabbing the right things. “Unsweetened chocolate, confectioner’s sugar,” Eva’s eyes wrinkled at that. What was confectioner’s sugar? How was it different from normal sugar? She shrugged. “and decorative sprinkles,” she finished, letting a long sigh escape her. With a hand placed over the counter, she turned her head to watch the boy that she had a feeling would most likely fumble with the ingredients.

Eva pouted. ‘Aww,’ she made the sound in her head, watching Finn fish out all the ingredients she asked for like a pro. Honestly, she really had been expecting the boy to fail a little. Her only amusing moment came when Finn found the confectioners’ sugar and dropped it far away from her after claiming it to be gross. Curious enough, Eva scooted over to where he dropped the bag and peeked in, raising an eyebrow when she saw nothing out of the ordinary. It looked like powdered sugar and Eva was still not sure what made it different to the normal ones until Olly called out something about using it for topping off.

She shrugged, letting her eyes go back to the book to answer Finn’s question. “Well, the recipe states that we need it. So I suppose we will have to use it at some point,” she replied to the relief of Olly who nodded approvingly. “Of course you’ll need it!” he commented, seemingly pleased with Eva but she didn’t miss the quick glare he threw at Finn.

“Alright! Since we now have all the ingredients, let’s get to baking!” she cheered, grabbing the necessary utensils off the shelves. “Finn, can you preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit?” she called over her shoulder while one of her hands reached for a baking pan. The other reached for a parchment paper that she laid over the bottom of the pan and began buttering it, her eyes moving from the book to the pan and back to the book as she tried to follow the instructions as precisely as possible. The cameraman clicked away when she licked a bit of butter off her fingers as Eva tried to not forget that they were in the middle of a photo shoot.

“Now we have to sift the flour. Uhm Finn, can you help me?”