The cake before them was not small. It was a twelve-inch fruit and cream monstrosity, slathered in thick layers of buttercream piped into a dazzling, colorful floral arrangement. One look at the garish display was enough to kill Shu's appetite.
The piping was magnificent. The baker had clearly gone all out, showing off their skills by creating several different types of flowers on the cake's surface.
Since Shu hadn't specified that it was a birthday cake when he ordered it, the baker hadn't even left a spot for candles. Every single inch of the cake was covered in piped cream.
The baker had probably gotten a little carried away, completely forgetting that this masterpiece was ultimately destined to be sliced into pieces.
And now, Kiana was stuck.
Shu, who had long since anticipated this and passed off the cake knife precisely because he didn't want to be the one to ruin it, watched her with a hint of schadenfreude.
Kiana held the knife in midair, her hand trembling slightly, unable to bring it down.
From Shu's perspective, this was clearly a case of Kiana being paralyzed with indecision over where to make the first cut.
"If you really can't bring yourself to do it, we can just use spoons and dig in," Shu said, finally taking pity on her. He sighed softly, breaking the silence.
"Hm?" Kiana let out a dazed hum, then quickly snapped back to reality, nodding frantically. "Ah! Right, right! Let's just dig in!"
She scratched her head sheepishly, looking completely flustered and unconvincing.
"Hehe... this cake is just too pretty. I really can't bear to cut it..."
Oh? She's actually embarrassed.
Shu suppressed a smile. He glanced at the flimsy plastic plates and forks that came with the cake, correctly concluding that they were useless for a direct assault.
"I'll go get a couple of spoons," Shu said, turning toward the kitchen to grab two long-handled metal spoons.
Kiana just nodded repeatedly, not daring to say another word.
Since Shu had already turned his back, he didn't see the nervous tension in her posture.
"Meow~" Rice Cake let out a soft cry at Kiana's feet, making her tense body jump before she finally, mercifully relaxed.
Seizing the opportunity while Shu's attention was elsewhere, Kiana finally uncurled the hand she had been hiding behind her back, revealing the object she had been clenching tightly in her palm.
It wasn't large. Its surface reflected fragmented shards of light.
Kiana rarely ever got sweaty palms. Her strong heart matched her superhuman constitution; she usually existed in one of two states: normal or highly excited.
For her to be so nervous that her hands were actually sweating... this was an extremely rare occurrence.
Anxiously, Kiana grabbed a tissue and wiped the faint traces of sweat from the object. She took a deep breath, and finally, having made her decision, she gently pressed it into the cake.
The faint resistance she felt as she pushed it in felt like the entire world was trying to grab her hand and stop her.
But after hiding the object, her hand froze again in midair.
She was already regretting it... It wasn't too late to take it back out.
Should I take it out?
Should I give up on this chance?
But...
Kiana squeezed her eyes shut in anguish, her hand trembling slightly.
She couldn't... She shouldn't...
"Meow," Rice Cake's voice cut through her internal debate, as if reminding the conflicted girl of something.
"Sneaking a bite, are we?" Shu's voice came from right beside her, making Kiana jolt with a full-body flinch.
He was already holding the two long-handled spoons.
He glanced at the cream smeared on Kiana's fingers, his expression a little strange.
Sneaking a bite? Something's not right.
Kiana's entire demeanor was off. She was acting way too guilty. Just sneaking a bit of cake wouldn't warrant this level of panic. And poking the cream with her finger? That made even less sense.
Unless Kiana was planning on smearing that cream all over his face in the next second, Shu couldn't think of any logical reason why she would touch it with her bare hands when she had a perfectly good knife.
She couldn't possibly be that dumb, right?
The next moment, Shu felt a warm sensation on his cheek. A dab of body-temperature cream was now sitting on his face.
Kiana wasn't dumb. She was actually very smart.
Getting cream on her hand wasn't from sneaking a bite, so what else could it be for? It only took her half a second to figure out how to cover her tracks.
A muscle in Shu's cheek twitched, but he didn't even try to dodge.
He stared at the blob of cream, then at the girl who had audaciously assaulted him and wasn't even trying to run away—just staring at him nervously. His eyes screamed his protest.
He was about to lay the blame on thick!
"Well, now... you're already wasting food before we've even started?" But his voice held no trace of accusation, only a resigned, amused tone.
Kiana's tense body relaxed slightly at his teasing scolding.
"Here... let me wipe it for you?" She quickly grabbed another tissue and rushed toward him, simultaneously using her body to block his view of the cake.
Shu's skin was still sensitive. Even though the tissues they used were premium quality—soft enough for an art student to use for blending—it still stung his face.
"Hiss~" Shu sucked in a sharp breath, instinctively recoiling from her hand.
"I'll do it myself..." Shu took the tissue with a helpless smile, then placed a spoon in Kiana's frozen hand. He realized Kiana had been freezing up a lot today.
She's really nervous... Is she hiding something from me?
As he gently wiped the cream from his cheek, Shu's gaze on Kiana grew heavier, more serious.
But he couldn't, for the life of him, figure out what Kiana would possibly hide from him... Logically, he was the one with more secrets.
Like the figurines that Kiana hadn't found yet...
Shu's eyebrow suddenly twitched.
Wait. This level of guilty nervousness, where she can't even look me in the eye... besides hiding something, there's another possibility!
What if she found out about one of my secrets, and now she doesn't know how to pretend she doesn't know?!
Shu's hand trembled, smearing the cream and turning his cheek bright red.
As a wave of stinging pain shot through his skin, the other half of his face went pale as a sheet.
Did Kiana find the other figurines I hid?! Or did she find something I've completely forgotten about, something so fatally embarrassing it would lead to my complete social annihilation?!
He stared at Kiana, his own pupils quaking, seeing her as a ticking time bomb, a catastrophic flood ready to burst at any moment.