NeoNara || TXT || taebin || yeonkai

2014-2015: Intermission

2014-2015: INTERMISSION

True to his nature, Taehyun waits until the next day. And then, on Monday, at lunch, he asks his parents.

"Move? To the city?" Roger looks at Taehyun like he has ketchup smeared on his face. "Are you sure about this?"

"It's just, I was invited to by some friends, to kind of get away from here for a while. And...I know it's expensive, but --"

"Terry, you can go visit them any time you want. You have a car. You can go down for the weekend. Just because they helped you this past weekend doesn't mean they're your saviors."

Taehyun looks at his peas. His mom speaks. "Terry, I know you've been through a lot this weekend, but let's not make any rash decisions, okay? These are nice people, but you just met them."

"I met them last year, Mom." Taehyun sits on his hands, unable to keep them busy. "They were all there when Mayu -- when Mary wasn't there. You know how she was gonna go with me and stuff, and then had to move into Sage instead? I met them all, and now they've promoted my music all year long. Those are friends. I don't think either of you understand what a pain Mary was. She didn't even let me have my own passwords --"

"Terry, how many times do I have to tell you?" Roger interrupts. "She was your girlfriend. You didn't control her. So she went out of control. Yes, destroying the RV was a bit much, and I'm glad we never have to deal with that again. But if you had kept her in line from the start, maybe none of this would have happened."

"Roger." Even Melinda knows that was uncalled for. "You don't control me."

"That's because I've never had to control you."

And Melinda stares back, mouth open. "How dare you?! Really? You stay all nice in front of Terry's new friends and then you go and tell him this is all his fault?"

"I am sitting right here," Taehyun mutters, scratching the side of his head. Something doesn't feel right.

"I'm just saying that it makes more sense for him to stay right here, and to keep working at his job and apply to college and get a new girlfriend, hopefully someone who's softer. What about Elyse Joy? She's always been the sweetest girl at church, Terry, why don't you like her?"

Taehyun can't tell his adopted parents that he's gay. Not yet. "I just...don't?" he says with a shrug. "I liked Mary, I guess."

"Our conversation is not done, Roger," Melinda says, shoving a mouthful of peas in her mouth.

"Neither is ours. Dad, I need to get out of here for a while. Mary's an absolute psycho, and from what my friends are saying, I might be messed up in the head over it. I think I need therapy, and maybe some --"

"No, you don't, son. You need to man up and get over it."

Taehyun stands up from the lunch table. "I am a man, too. I may not be the man you want me to be, but I'm still a man. And I will respect you, but I deserve some respect, too. I let Mary walk all over me. I'm not gonna let my dad do the same thing. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to work, and hopefully I will come home and this will all be smoothed over." And he leaves the peas sitting on the table, grabs the car keys, and goes to his job.

"Well done, Roger," Melinda sneers as she cleans up.

"He needed to keep a tight leash on her."

"I thought one of the things you liked about me was that I couldn't be kept on a leash. What about that girl you met at the Zeppelin concert all those years ago? What about the woman who moved mountains for Hurricane Katrina relief at church? Whose bright idea was it to adopt a sweet little boy from Korea? Mine, that's who. And you've just sat back and let me do what I want, because you thought all of my ideas were brilliant. And yeah, I'm scared, but Terry's 19. He is an adult." Melinda pauses. "And I never did like that Mary girl. It wasn't just what the people at church said. She was always sweet to us, but it always came off as fake. You know I've been saying that."