My I ➵ Seventeen - junhui

1.9

My dad was already sitting at the dining table, watching a movie on his tablet. I waked over and plucked out his earphones. "We have a guest, dad." I said.

He tore his eyes away from the screen. "Hmm?" He glanced at Jun, who bowed politely. "Oh yes. Very nice to meet you." He mumbled, clearly still thinking about the movie.

My mom coughed. "Dear, this is Yenling's friend, Jun."

"That's nice." His eyes wandered back to the screen, when he stopped. He looked up again, this time having a good look at Jun. "Wait what?"

"Hello, Mr. Wang." Jun nodded respectively. "I'm a friend of Yenling's."

Dad turned off his iPad, and turned so he fully faced Jun. "I see." He glanced at me, raising his eyebrows. "Is he your boyfriend?" He whispered, loud enough for everyone to hear.

I groaned. Not again. "No." I replied, to tired to say anything else.

Sarah snickered. She poked me in the ribs, saying, "But I bet you wish he was."

The nerve of that little brat.

We were all seated around the square dining table. Sarah and Jun on either side of me, and Mom and Dad on the opposite side. Mom had placed a bowl of fried rice in front of each of us, and a pot of seaweed soup in the middle of the table.

She smiled at us. "Help yourselves."

I picked up my chopsticks and lowered my head, trying to not look anyone in the eye. Sure, this dinner thing was all my idea, but I wasn't thinking this through. My mom would ask Jun all sorts of embarrassing questions. Dad would probably ask him about his status and career. Sarah would say the wrong thing at the wrong time. Ugh.

As I expected, my mom spoke up. "How old are you, Junhui?" She said in Korean.

"I'm turning 22 this year, ma'am." Jun replied. He paused, chewing on a spoonful of rice. "This is really good, Mrs. Wang! Would you mind teaching me how to make this?"

Mom smiled broadly. "Why, of course I could teach you? Who are you planning to cook it for?"

"Probably my friends back at Seventeen." He said. "They would all love this."

"Seventeen?" This time, my dad spoke up. "What's Seventeen?"

"It's a kpop group, sir."

My mom slapped his arm softly, laughing a bit. "Honey, you should pay attention to Korean pop culture a bit more."

Dad ignored her, and continued questioning Jun, who looked calm and collected. A little gentlemanly. Which made my inner Carat want to scream. He looked so good when he was acting this way. I lower my head even more, focusing only on the grains of rice in my bowl.

"Junhui, so you work as a... An idol?" My dad's voice was skeptical. "What do you do as an idol?"

"Ah, we create entertainment for Carats. I, for one, am part of the performance team, where we choreograph dances for the group. There are also two other teams." Jun was using Chinese now. I wonder how he got used to it, switching from Korean to Chinese each time he communicated with my mom and dad.

I didn't need to look up to know my dad was already disapproving Jun's arrival, and he didn't say it. Dad always disliked celebrities. He said fans were dumb to go crazy over another person. To him, famous people were just ordinary people with an abnormal job. The only job he acknowledges is being a doctor. Typical Asian father.

Jun and my mom were busy chatting about something. Sarah reached over and tapped me on the arm. "Say," she said, raising her eyebrows. "Why did you ditch school today?"