The people on the narrow pavement keep tossing me left and right, making it hard for me to find my ringing phone. Not to mention I'm trying not to drop the bag, in which are Minho's and Squirrely's gifts I bought on Jeju island.
"Did he have to call now??" A small curst escapes my lips as I try to reach all the way down to my jacket's pocket. I push myself to the side of the pavement, and lean the suitcase that I have been pulling after myself in my left hand, on the wall. I reach down for my phone and see Minho's ID pop out.
"What do you want??" I ask a bit annoyed, since I didn't really get much sleep today.
"Ahh my dear friend, don't be so grumpy on this beautiful afternoon." He says with happiness overflowing his tone. "Let me guess... you didn't get much sleep on your last day on vacation??" That's a home run for him.
"Of course I didn't. My coworkers a.k.a. friends went all out on the last day. I didn't get to close my eyes tonight, and for some reason I couldn't sleep even for that one hour on the flight." A chuckle is heard on the other side of the speaker.
"You should have just kicked them out of your room, why are you so nice to them??" Why does it seem like he is scolding me right now.. but yes. He is right. When the clock hit 3am I should have kicked them out. "Anyway, you'll sleep at home with someone who I'm not sure remembers you're returning today??" What does he mean though, I told them two days ago I'm coming home one day earlier. Come to think of it, Jisung didn't seem like he was paying attention to what I was really saying, since I caught the two in a middle of a game. "Oh, and... the apartment might be a bit messy." You know before I could live with the words 'a bit messy' but now when we live with Jisung, I'm not really sure I want to. It's not that he is dirty, it's just he doesn't throw the garbage in the trash bin, he just leaves it there and keeps telling himself he will clean it up, but always forgets since he doesn't really get off the couch or out of bed often.
Over the last one year we had quite a few arguments, but nothing to major. It's not hard to work things out with him, all I need to do is sit him on the couch and bring up the subject, so we can get mad fast and let our anger out, look through both sides and solve it in the same day. I'm not the type to hold on arguments anyway, it's a waste of time when I know I can solve it.
"What do you mean a bit-"
"Anyway bye." He hangs up the phone on me, leaving me speechless for a few seconds, before I slide my phone back into my pocket and start to head toward our apartment. One thing that changed for sure in the last one year is that now I know my way around Seoul, I haven't gotten lost in a while which is a bit accomplishment for me.
After the day we put an end to everything, things didn't seattle as fast as I thought. Yes, we did get a punishment for going against the law but it wasn't anything big, just voluntary work for over a month. It somehow helped us get over the fact that we forgot Seungmin and literally left him to sit in jail for over 30 minutes, but hey.. it could have been a lot worst. We got even closer as the three of us cleaned trash in parks, and Squirrely was also enjoying bossing us around for a few hours a day. I got my job back and for some reason everyone started treating me a lot nicer. I mean, they were nice before as well, but now they act like I'm super girl in the building.
Well, other then that Minho and Seungmin returned to school as well, and we even got to see Jeongin more after we returned to our lives. On the other hand 'adopting' Squirrely was somehow tough. They wanted to give him professional help, but he kept insisting and rejecting it. Since he is an adult, he did have a word about what is going to happen to him, and his anxiety level always seemed to be higher when he wasn't around one of us, so that's how we got permission to keep him. On the beginning there was a woman that came every month to check up on him, and to make sure we are giving him everything he needs, but by now she stopped coming as often.
We agreed to go slowly with him and not force him into anything, so for the first few months he stayed mostly at home, of course we did go out but there were quite a few times when he got a panic attack in public, and since everyone knew who he is and some still do, he often felt uncomfortable because of the stares people kept giving him. I let him take his time and not push him to far out of his comfort zone, and it somehow paid off. After a while he started socializing online, and he even meet up with these two dudes which he always introduced as Dwaekki and Kangaroo. The first time he meet them, I went with him just in case, and also because he was nervous and scared as fuck.
I have to admit, I like them. Chan and Changbin seem like they really care about him. Despite Squirrely's reputation they never view him like other people do, and they take good care of him every time I leave him with them. His mental state has partly gotten better because of those two, and I'm happy that Squirrely found friends despite everything that has happened.
I slide the key in and slowly opened the door. It doesn't look that bad as I walk inside the small hallway. Their shoes are all over the place, but other than that everything seems ok. I leave the suitcase on the side of the hallway, and take off my shoes and jacket, and only when my eyes land on the livingroom and kitchen my jaw drops.
There are plates and cups everywhere, plastic bags of food they have bought, and plastic wrappings that the food was in. The clean and dirty dishes are all in one place, and on the small table in the living room, there are plenty of empty bags of snacks. I don't even want to look down at the floor because I have a feeling they haven't vacuumed in a while.
The anger slowly starts to boil in me, and only after I completely stop my movements, I hear the water running in the bathroom. Jisung must be showering his dirty ass while the place in front of me looks like a bomb of trash landed in here.
The water stops and a few seconds later the door open. I walk further inside only to see Squirrely get out of the bathroom quietly on his tip toes.
I turn toward him and clear my throat making him freeze on the spot. He mumbles a few words under his breath, turning his body around and giving me a wide smile.
Minho was damn right, I sure have a good view now. I never really thought Squirrely will work out more than needed, but he seemed to like spending time with Minho in the gym. He sure build up a good body. Good thing I can still act mad while he is standing in front of me only with the towel around his waist, and his bare chest showing. What catches my attention is his hair though. He's blonde. He has never dyed his hair before and now when I'm seeing it, it's not bad.
"Baby. I can explain." He says with his hands in front of him.
"Please do. I'm excited to head your excuse this time." I raise an eyebrow at him and cross my arms. He stares at me for a while with his smile slowly fading away. His mouth open to say something and then again closes. I thought so, he run out of excuses. Without letting that get in his way, he places a weird smile on his face and slowly starts to approach me while doing a weird dance.
"~~I love youuu~~" He slowly dances his way behind me, while I just can't help but smile at him. He gives me a hug from behind making me relax my body and drop the mad aura around me. I turn my head to the right to look at him, and before I get to say anything he places his lips on mine in a slow and gentle kiss. After a few seconds I pull back and look up at his eyes.
"I told you to not to make a mess." I whisper to him only for him to lie his chin on my shoulder and close his eyes while whispering back an answer.
"I'm sorry. I will clean right awa- did you gain weight??" He suddenly asks out of the blue, as his hands start touching my clothed stomach more detailed. I pull away from the hug and turn to him with a serious expression on my face. I actually did gain weight while I was on this trip since all we did was eat and have fun. I mean we did do some work but still we mostly ate.
"Is that a problem?? You know every girl should have some fat it's healthy and natural, not everyone are perfectly skinny." He laughs at my answer and leans forward for one more hug before answering."
"Noo, why would it be. Don't enter your panic mode so fast, I'm just glad you ate well." I smile and once again pull away from the hug.
"Dress up and let's clean up, and then I can have my dose of a healthy meal for the day." Only after he puts his clothes on, we start to clean up the kitchen and the living room, while chatting about each others days. All of a sudden Squirrely brings up a subject I never expected from him.
"What do you think about me.. finding a job??" He asks carefully while dragging the question. I look at him surprised since he has never been a fan of big contact with people even after one year, and now he wants to find a job..??
"Amm..go on."
"You know me, Chan hyung, and Changbin hyung, have been recording some stuff in the last few months and it's pretty good, so a few days ago they asked me if I want to work with them on this mixtape and well.. I kinda agree." Before I get to say anything he quickly continues with panic overflowing his tone. "I know I'm still not the best with other people but I want to try, and they even told me themselves that they won't force me into anything I won't be comfortable with. I know you won't stop me from doing it, but I still feel like I need your... opinion."
"You're right. I'm not going to stop you from doing it, I actually think you should go for it. If you want it and are ready to do your best you should definitely give it a shot, even if it doesn't work out you will gain some experience." I say and right after the worry on his face is replaced with a smile. "Are you done??" I ask since the trash bag in his hands is full.
"Thanks. And yes, I am. Let me wipe this and it's gonna shine like new."
We throw the bags in front of the door in the hallway, and he starts to vacuum the floor while I decide to cook some spicy rice cakes for lunch. After we took Squirrely in our apartment I realized one of us simply has to know how to cook. Knowing Squirrely, there is a bigger chance he sets the entire apartment on fire then cook something for himself, so wanting to avoid that, me and Minho watched a thousand of YouTube videos and failed twice as much but it paid off. Now, we both can cook. It's pretty fun once you know how to do it actually, I like it a lot.
In those 30 minutes Squirrely finishes and even Minho comes back from college, so now I have two hungry kids waiting behind the table. Once it's done, I serve it in front of them and everyone sit down behind the table.
"Damn, it smells good." Minho comments. "By the way, I'm glad I missed the cleaning period." What a brat, he probably stayed out with his friends for a few minutes on purpose, so he would come back to a clean home.
"Enjoy." I say and both of them pick up their chopsticks.
"Ughh, I actually wanted to ask you something." Minho starts talking after a few minutes of us eating. We both look at him telling him to continue. "Did you guys ever think of moving out??" He asks making me choke on my food. He has never asked that despite mine and Squirrely's relationship so what has changed. I look at Squirrely and see the exactly same surprised expression on his face.
"Are you kicking us out??" I ask making him look up from his plate.
"Kinda." He says like it's nothing major. "Jisung told you he will start working right?? And who knows if they are successful he will make quite some money. Besides, maybe I want to live with someone else and not you two." Ok now that is interesting. Both me and Squirrely smirk at each other and right after look at him.
"Who are they?? Boy or girl?? Are they from work or college?? I need the details hyung." Squirrely attacks.
"What the- eat you food and be quite, or I'm gonna spill those rice cakes down your underwear." He is definitely hiding something.
"Thank you for the food, now I need to go." I am taken by surprise as I look at his empty plate. When did he eat it all??
"Where are you going??" I ask out of curiosity only to earn a dead silence from him. "Ooooo, my man is meeting his future roommate I see. Say hi for us, and tell us who they are when you get back or I will follow you next time." I say making him chuckle.
"I liked you better when you didn't know the city. Oh and he has something big to tell you. You won't like it truth me." He says before waving his hand at us.
"Wh- have fun!!" I shout before he walks out of the door and right after turn to Squirrely who is already awkwardly smiling at me.
"Spill it." I demand.
"Well.. umm.. the thing is. You know how your parents keep calling and they always ask who I am and stuff since you haven't really introduced us, and we are living together for a over a year already.. so a few days ago they... they called and.. ummm.. how do I say it-"
"Just say it." My patience is really running out right now, because my parents were and never will be my favorite topic to talk about.
"I TOLD THEM WE WILL VISIT THEM TOMORROW!!" He shouts out loud and close his eyes right after. He... my parents... I have to.. to.. introduce him...... TOMORROW?! My mind immediately starts panicking.
"Wha- you-"
"IT WAS YOUR FATHER I COULDN'T SAY NO. HE WAS SO SCARY EVEN THROUGH THE PHONE SPEAKER." He defends himself. I.. I need time to process this.
"I- I think I need to take a nap." I say and quickly eat my food before getting up and heading toward our room. All of a sudden Squirrely gets up and blocks me from opening the door.
"WAIT.. wait." He quickly walks to the kitchen and grabs a trash bag and a towel. "Just 5 minutes." He enters the room while opening the door as less as possible, not letting me see anything. After around 10 minutes he exits with the bag full and a few drops of sweat dripping down his forehead.
"Sweet dreams." He says as I enter inside. I thank him with a small smile, and then close the door shut. Did he just clean this entire room in 10 minute,s because this room is shining. And what I say shining, I mean shining.
I lie down on the bed, and just stare at the wall. Do I really have to introduce him to my parents tomorrow?? Like, it's not that I don't want to... well I don't, but it's also the fact that I have been successfully avoiding this for the past one year, and my parents know that. I've meet them a couple of times of course, like for my birthday when I visited my sister with Squirrely and Minho, but then I forced them to go home while I visited my parents. Then I visited them for a few holidays and that's it. Every time I saw them the exactly same question came out of their mouth, and that was 'When do we get to meet him??' My dad even lashed out at me once, because I live with a mentally unstable person for months, and have never let him meet him. And it didn't help that right after I told him that we are kinda.. dating. He was ready to shoot me for waiting months before I told him, so I'm worried about this.. boyfriend parents interaction thing.
I aggressively start to kick the mattress with my feet while burying my face into the pillow, to let out the most desperate scream in my life. I get up from the bed since I know it's pointless to try to fall asleep, because I'm going to over think this until we actually meet my parents. I exit the room, and slowly walk back into the living room where Squirrely is lying on the couch with the TV on. His eyes immediately land on me giving me a confused look.
"I thought you will take a-" I cut him by slowly crawling on top of his body, with my head lying on his chest and hands wrapped around him.
"What did you do that??" I ask, with a desperate tone and a pout on my face that he probably can't see.
"What did I- Why do you sound so depressed??" He gives me a small chuckle but I don't really understand what he's laughing at. I'm having a serious mental break down right now.
"My parents... we won't survive.. it's a lost cause." I mumble. While he just starts laughing at me even harder.
"Are that bad??" He asks.
"They are strict and way to over protective. They can even find out how many times I go to the bathroom each day if they want to."
"Ok, now that is creepy." He says with an awkward laugh.
"They are so hard to talk to and they make the atmosphere so heavy in less then a few seconds. What if they ask some inappropriate shit or press you with inappropriate questions?? There is a 100% chance that they will bring up your past, and I don't want to see you uncomfortable for a straight 1 hour. What if you get a panic attack because of them??" I have a feeling like my tone is even more depressed than before.
"Baby. I have to meet them. We can't avoid them for the rest of our lives, and besides, I am a lot better now so I think I can handle it. Don't make me more nervous then I already am." Even he is scolding me. Why are everyone scolding me today??
"Sorry." I mumble at him before closing my eyes. I can feel his hands around myself which is somehow comforting considering the fact that we are meeting my parents tomorrow.
"Damn you are heavy." He jokes referring to my gained weight. I hit him on the shoulder making him laugh at me.
"Yahh!!"
"Sorry, Sorry. I'm joking." He laughs at me before hugging me tighter are placing a kiss on top of my head. There are a lot of things I got to learn about him but a specific one is that he loves kisses. He grabs every chance he can when it comes to kisses, even the most weird ones like my feet.
"I didn't mention this but.. you're hair looks good. Makes you sexy." I say since I didn't get to compliment his hair before.
"Of course it looks good. I'm Han Jisung the good looking sexy guy." He jokes again making me let out a chuckle, before I completely give up on moving or functioning in general.
After a few seconds I feel my body getting relaxed, and my nerves slowly loosening down. He does magic when it comes to relaxing me, I swear to god. I want to sleep here . It's so warm.
--
"Come on get out, it's been an hour." I yell at the bathroom door hoping he hears me.
"Is he still in there??" Minho asks while taking his shoes off. He managed to go to the store and return, but nothing has changed at home because Squirrely is still inside the bathroom. "He's at least putting effort in it. When I meet your parents for the first time I was dressed like a basic fuck boy, which didn't leave a good first expression." It's true. Minho was dressed so boldly that my father scolding me for having friends like him after they meet. I even had to invite Minho for dinner so they would see he's not like what they imagined him.
During this time I have already dealt with the fact that they have to meet Squirrely eventually, so I think I'm fine now. I'm not panicking as much as before and am ready to face my parents. A second later the bathroom door open and revile Squirrely, who is fully dressed in an amazing suit that makes him look so damn hot. The right side of his blonde hair is stylish backwards revealing his undercut with most of his hair being thrown on the left side, with the tips slightly touching his forehead. My jaw drops as I check him out repeatedly.
"You're hot." Says Minho next to me and he is not joking.
"Hot indeed." I say with my eyes still all over him.
"She's gonna eat you up before you get to go anywhere today." I look at Minho only to see him smirking back at me.
"Damn, you're so dirty." My comment makes him throw a wink toward me, before he walks toward Squirrely who is not shyly looking around the room.
"Let me just fix a few stuff." He says as his hands run through Squirrely's clothing fixing his tie a bit and then his formal white shirt. "Speak confidently, but don't be to bold while doing it. Look them in the eyes if you're answering a question or just talking in general, but don't do it all the time, you'll turn out weird. You have to look like a man in their eyes, not a mentally unstable patient ok??" Squirrely nods at Minho's sudden instructions, and right after Minho looks him in the eyes and hits his chest with both of his hands. "You're all set. Good luck buddy." He smiles at him before walking to the side letting me have a word with him as well.
"Is it to much??" He nervously asks as I step forward and place my hands on his shoulders.
"Not at all. My father will like the effort, now let's go or we'll miss the train." I say, and right after we wave our goodbyes to Minho and exit the apartment. On our way toward the train station and during the ride, Squirrely made around 155 scenarios about how this day might end. I guess now he's the one who is losing his shit while I'm trying to be as calm as possible.
We are already in my old home town walking down this familiar street, with Squirrely nervously jumping up and down.
"We can still turn around right??"
"Noup."
"But this really is a bad idea don't you think."
"I have always thought that."
"What if everything goes wrong and the hate me??" Out of annoyance I stop walking and turn toward him with my hands searching for his.
"Listen babe. You're gonna be fine, just remember what Minho told you and you're seriously going to be fine. Come one just breathe." I say and take a few deep breaths with him. "Now. Let's go, it's this house." I point toward the second house on our left and slowly pull him with me. I open the gate to our small front yard, and slowly walk toward the front door. Home sweet home, it feels like I'm choking from the inside every time I see you. Before I ring the bell I look up at Squirrely and take a deep breath.
"By the way... I didn't mention this before, but my father is a professional military soldier, so he might point a gun or two at you." Suddenly Squirrely let's go of my hand and look at me in shock.
"He might what!!" In that moment the handle on the door turn downwards and the door open.
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Thank you for reading ❤️🖤
Here is a picture of the main "cast" cos why not lol.