"Hi Mom," I said, answering the FaceTime call.
"Why do you never call your mother?" she asked in her thick Korean accent. I opened my mouth to protest this unjust treatment, but my mom just barked on. "You know who calls me?" I was going to answer 'my sister' but my Mom didn't give me enough time. "Your friend, Taehyung! He calls me more than you do. Maybe should I adopt him as my son instead since he cares about your dear mother more than you do."
I glared at Taehyung. He shrugged like he was supposed to talk to someone else.
"Mom, I've been busy this week, I'm sorry."
"Sure that's what I hear every week. You know Taehyung tells me everything you're up to since you refuse to call me."
"Mom I don't refuse to call you."
"You know I love you and I miss you! You live so far now I hardly ever see you!"
"Mom, I only live three hours away."
"You might as well live across the country!"
"Oh my God."
"So since I have to get all of my information from Taehyung I thought I would just call you myself and we can catch up. I also need to get a final headcount for Christmas. Taehyung and your girlfriend, right? Anyone else?"
"My girlfriend?" I asked, confused.
"I thought you and Jennie were an item?"
"Jennie? A what?"
"I thought you two were dating."
"No, Mom, it's just fake for my holiday party. I told you this. Who told you we were actually dating?"
"From what I've heard it's not fake." I glared at Taehyung again who threw his hands up in surrender. "I don't know how many times I have to tell you I want to know about your dating life. Taehyung even told me about his date last night! You didn't tell me about your date with Jennie. Why do I have to drag these things out of you?"
"Oh my God mother! It wasn't a date; we're not dating-we're just friends. Jennie is pretending to be my girlfriend."
"Listen, honey, you don't have to be embarrassed. You know I approve, even if you won't tell your own mother about your dating life. Jennie's wonderful. So pretty and smart and successful. You could do much worse; you have done much worse."
I hit Taehyung. "I don't know what Taehyung has been telling you but he's lying. Jennie isn't my girlfriend."
"Well why not? You've been single for so long and Jennie's a wonderful woman! And you think she's hot. What else do you need?"
My face burned bright red. "Mother! I never said that!" I tried to tell her with my eyes to shut up, but she didn't seem to be getting the hint.
"Yes you did! Taehyung, didn't she say that Jennie was hot?"
"Mom! Jennie is in the room. She can hear you!"
I jumped off the couch and walked onto the balcony to finish the phone call, firmly closing the door behind me. I didn't care that it was snowing and I was freezing and didn't have any shoes on; I would not allow my mother to embarrass me anymore.
"Mom! I told you to never repeat what I told you about Jennie!"
"Sorry honey, your mother forgets these things. I still think you should tell her though, it's a nice compliment for a girl to hear, especially from such a beautiful young woman like yourself."
"She heard you!"
"So what's the problem?"
"The problem is she heard you, Mother! Now she knows that I said that."
"Oh honey, if you two aren't dating then it doesn't matter what she heard. Besides she'll take it as a compliment and who knows? If she know you're attracted to her then-"
"No! There is nothing after that. We are just friends." I passed a hand over my face. "What has Taehyung been telling you?"
"Oh nothing much, just things here and there."
"What things?"
"That you two have been hanging out more and you went on a date on Thursday and you went ice skating yesterday and were holding hands the entire time."
"Oh my God! I was holding on to her so I didn't fall. You know I can't skate. Thursday wasn't a date; we just got food to talk about the party." My mom made a face that told me she didn't believe a word I was saying. "Mom, please. I'm not dating Jennie. We're just friends. Actually, I don't even know if we're even friends. She just Taehyung's sister and I'm bringing her to my Christmas party as a date. That's all."
"Mhm," my mom said, all sass.
"Oh my God."
"If you called me more we wouldn't be having this huge misunderstanding."
"No the problem is you listen to Taehyung and he's a liar."
"Honey, you're spending an awful lot of time with a girl that you're 'just friends with.' Take it from your mom: if there's a spark, there's a spark. Go after it."
"There's no spark, Mom. Listen, I gotta go, we're watching movies. I promise I'll call you more. Please don't bring up the fact that I mentioned Jennie was hot one time like three years ago when they come to our house for Christmas. Okay? Let's just forget about this whole thing. We are not together. We're friends."
"Okay Honey, I love you. You know I just want you to be happy and Jennie seems like such a wonderful girl and I thought you would be a good match."
"Thanks, Mom. It's just not like that okay? I love you. I'll call you this week I promise."
I walked back inside, frozen solid; I couldn't even feel my fingers. I walked back to the couch and bundled myself in a blanket. Jennie wasn't in the room.
Taehyung leaned over with a Cheshire grin. "You think Jennie's hot?"
I flushed again. "No, I didn't say that! My mom is totally taking this out of context."
"What was the context then? Jennie's not even in here. You can tell me."
"I don't want to talk about this with you. Jennie is your sister!!
Taehyung grinned.
"And if she wasn't my sister? Would you date her?"
I narrowed my eyes at him. "I'm not falling into a trap."
Taehyung grinned. "That's fine. That's enough of an answer for me. I know the truth."
"You know nothing! Also stop calling my Mom and talking about me!"
"You never call her; someone has to. You know she's basically my mom too, right?"
"I don't like that."
"Too bad."
Jennie returned to the room and sat down on the couch. She had a smirk on her face. I put up my hand to silence her.
"My mom is crazy. Don't listen to a word she said."
Jennie didn't speak a word but her face told me she didn't believe me. "Here," Jennie said and tossed me handwarmers. I clutched them eagerly and pressed my numb fingers into them.
"I'm going to the bathroom and getting more popcorn. Anyone need anything?" Taehyung said, popping up from the couch.
"More socks. I'm going to get frostbite."
Taehyung, nodded, hopped off the couch and smiled knowingly at his sister when she winked at him. I looked back and forth between the siblings.
"What was that about?" I asked.
"You think I'm hot, huh?"
My face burned red again. "I never no I didn't-my mom doesn't even know-I didn't say anything like that."
"Suddenly you've run out of words," Jennie teased a smile on her lips. I opened my mouth to retort but nothing came out. Jennie winked at me and my heart stopped. "It's okay, I won't tell anyone."
"You're the worst," I grumbled and covered my red face with the blanket.
"Am I? I thought I was hot?" Jennie teased.
"You're never going to let this go are you?" I asked, peeking up from the blanket.
"No, never."
"Oh my God. If I tell you what happened will you never bring this up again."
"Yes."
"Okay, one time, three years ago, when I first met you I may have told my mom I thought you were... Attractive."
"I thought the exact word was 'hot'?"
"Hot. Okay? Hot! That was it. Nothing else was said." Jennie taunted me with that smirk. "Okay. I told you. We will never speak of this again."
"Well..."
My head snapped to Jennie. "What do you mean 'well'?"
"I'll probably bring it up again."
"But you said "
"I lied."
My mouth hung open.
"It's really fun to see how red you get whenever someone mentions that you think I'm hot."
Involuntarily, my face burned red again. "Thought! Thought."
Taehyung plopped back down on the couch with a bowl of popcorn and another pair of socks for me. "Alright guys, ready?"
"Yeah, we were just talking about how Jisoo thinks I'm hot.."
I sank down into the couch and covered my face again. "I hate you both so much."