Yunjin really wasn't sure if this was going to work.
First off Chaewon had never mentioned her father was a Goliath of a man. One little detail that would have thoroughly prepared not only Eunchae but Yunjin as well. The second he walked into their apartment dressed in a pair of shorts and tight athletic shirt, Yunjin knew this man had to either live at the gym or was part hulk. Even her Mom was quite fit, it kind of explained why Chaewon willingly worked out while Sakura had to drag Yunjin to the gym. Chaewon had a great body, it was clear where she learned her fitness habits from. As if Yunjin wasn't already intimidated by the prospect of meeting Chaewon's parents, to know they looked like they made things ten times harder.
Chaewon had left a few hours earlier, waking her up and telling her to wake Eunchae up and get her ready while she was gone. The two of them had a pretty lazy morning, watching a few cartoons together with the dogs, and ate some sugary cereal that Yunjin had bought and hid from Chaewon. There wasn't much to do anyways, Chaewon had already mostly decorated the house. It looked like the North Pole threw up in their living room, garland and small figurines covered the place. There were a few unpacked boxes or ornaments and a toy train for the bottom of the tree they hadn't set up yet. Chaewon had argued that they needed to do it with her parents, and plus she wanted to paint ornaments with Chaewon first as well. If she remembered correctly Chaewon said she wanted to do it tonight as a way to bond them all together, but she wasn't really listening so she could be wrong.
Their youngest was a bit nervous too, she didn't say but Peng had been sandwiched in her arms all morning. Even if she said she was excited to meet Chaewon's parents, Eunchae had asked to be picked up as soon as the door started to open. She could feel the way Eunchae started to tense up in her arms when they both laid eyes on the bear of a man that was Chaewon's dad. The detective had been a bit concerned about this ever since Chaewon first suggested it, Eunchae didn't like men, she warmed up to Taeyong and Mark, and was starting to like Yeonjun, but outside of that Yunjin had no idea how she was going to react. As much progress as she had made, things still took time and even in Yunjin's care, Yunjin herself was hurt by a man.
The trio made their way into the apartment, Chaewon's parents immediately set their sights on both Yunjin and Eunchae. Her mother smiled, waving as Eunchae just buried her face into Yunjin's neck. Chaewon helped her dad bring their bags in, stopping and staring at Yunjin, " I thought you said you were gonna wear something nice!"
She looked down at her outfit, blue jeans and a grey turtleneck, Eunchae was even wearing a matching outfit. T-this was her nice?
"Chaewon, leave the poor girl alone." Chaewon's mom shook her head, brushing past the girl to go give Yunjin a hug, taking both her and Eunchae by surprise. Yunjin was expecting a handshake at most if she absolutely had to have contact, "I think you look great honey."
"You speak English?" That wasn't exactly the first thing Yunjin ever wanted to say to her girlfriend's parents. Maybe a hey, how are you? Or it's very nice to meet you ma'am.
She didn't seem to mind though, barking out in laughter in a way that was warm and comforting, her eyes crinkling up, "No, but I know our Chaewon too well."
Our Chaewon. That was strange, Yunjin had only met this woman for a few minutes but she was already including her. This felt weird. Her parents were never affectionate with her, and while Eunha spent a long time slowly getting Yunjin out of her shell it took a while, even Sakura and her weren't super affectionate with each other. It was almost-nice? It was nice for a second, until another much Mather body encompassed the two of them: Chaewon's dad.
This time it didn't go over as well. Just as Yunjin had been expecting her to do ever since they walked into her house, Eunchae burst into tears sending him flinging himself off of them and both parents looking at the child with worry written over their faces. Great, fucking great. Yunjin bounced her gently, cringing when she felt Eunchae hide her face away into Peng's fur.
"Taecyeon! Look what you did!"
"I only did what you did!"
"You made the baby cry!"
"I didn't mean to!"
In any other circumstances they might have been amusing, but right now it was starting to stress Yunjin out. In a hushed tone, she spoke to Eunchae, "Hey, why are you crying?"
No response, not that Yunjin really expected one.
"Buddy, don't cry. That's Chaewon's dad."
"Chaewon's dad?" Eunchae sniffled, finally calming down as she looked up at Yunjin. Yunjin just nodded, and this seemed to calm Eunchae down a little bit. She could see it in Eunchae's eyes, complete and utter trust. Yunjin wouldn't bring someone dangerous into their house, so if Yunjin wasn't worried she didn't have a reason to be as well.
"Suzy, the gift." Chaewon's dad motioned, to which she quickly reached into their carry on and pulled out a book. She handed it to him, which he held out in Eunchae's direction, "Chaewon told me you like these books."
Detective Penguin and the case of the missing snowman. How many of these damn books were there? Eunchae already had six, this made her collection go up to seven. But this seemed to be the right move, Eunchae looking over at the book, hesitating for a second before reaching out to grab it, her face lighting up as she recognized the character on the cover of the book. She looked up at them and then back down at the book.
And just like that the Oks were officially in, and they seemed to be just like Chaewon filling the entire space with their presence and warmth. It was strange they talked like they had all known each other for ever. Suzy smiled and walked over to a shelf picking up a picture frame with smiling Eunchae with the two dogs on either side of her, "This place is really cute!"
It was small. They must've known Chaewon's old place and how much nicer it was than here. Were they mocking her? Her father looked around as well squinting his eyes before pointing to the corner of the living room, "We can set the tree up here!"
"That's what I was thinking!" Chaewon smiled.
These two weeks couldn't go by fast enough.
...
This was working.
Chaewon could tell. Her dad was busy setting up the tree, which was honestly a pretty good choice for him because she wasn't too sure how Eunchae (and Yunjin) would be surrounded by both of her parents all at once. Eunchae seemed a bit calmer now, sitting on Yunjin's lap as the ladies decorated ornaments. The kindergartener always did love to draw, so this was probably the best way to get her calm.
Yunjin was the problem. She was just so damn shy she didn't even attempt to talk to her mother, instead conversing with Eunchae in soft English. It didn't stop her mother from trying thought.
"I heard we're having dinner with your mother tomorrow." Suzy smiled. Chaewon knew she really didn't mean harm by that, she was just trying to engage Yunjin in a conversation but this probably wasn't the best thing to talk about. Chaewon had been very against Yunjin's mother coming over the second Yunjin had told her about it and showed her the texts.
She didn't have good intentions. Chaewon just had this gut feeling as she read over the text, after what happened last time she just didn't trust them. Yunjin had kinda told her about her past, glossing over some parts but Chaewon still had a pretty clear timeline in her head of what happened. The look in Yunjin's eyes when she talked to Chaewon about it was heartbreaking.
"She apologized, Chaewonnie." There was this hint of disbelief in Yunjin's voice as she said this, like she was sure this was a dream. Chaewon didn't have the heart to point out that it sounded more like she thought the way he acted was wrong, not that she was sorry for anything she had ever done to her.
Of course she hadn't told her parents about Yunjin's turbulent past, primarily for two reasons. One, it wasn't really their business. Two, she didn't want it to affect the way they thought of her, not that she thought they would really care but still. Still she could see the way Yunjin tensed up a bit before muttering out a small, "Yeah, she is."
"What does your family do?"
"My mom does data processing, and my dad is an architect and a preacher." That was new, Chaewon had no idea of that. Sure she knew they were religious, but she didn't know he was a preacher or that they had good jobs.
"Oh, are you religious?" Suzy asked. "Are you going to want to have the wedding in a church?"
"No. I'm not religious. I don't believe in God."
Her mother wasn't dumb, she could see her start to try and connect the dots in her head. Thankfully she just let it go, "So you're a detective?"
"Yeah." Gee. Thanks for that Yunjin, so informative. Go girl, give us nothing.
"That's cool. I'm a teacher."
Eunchae's head popped up at that, "You are?"
"Mhm, I teach seventh grade math." Eunchae lowered her head. With her diagnosis, Math was getting a lot easier. Eunchae didn't cry during her math anymore, she seemed to be taking to the new techniques they were teaching her well.
"Maybe if you ask, Grandma can read you your new story before you go to bed?" Chaewon suggested, "She's a teacher so she must know how to read."
"Do you not want to?"
Huh? "What? No, I'd love to. I just thought maybe you two would want to spend some time together."
"But reading is our thing."
"Okay, okay." Eunchae was starting to become more like Yunjin every day and Chaewon wasn't too sure if she liked it all too much. (Of course she loved it, but the both of them were so frustrating at times. She loved them more than life itself either way though.)
BANG
"Sorry!" Taecyeon called from the living room, sending them an apologetic smile. He knocked into a box sending it crashing down to the ground while trying to put the second part of the tree onto the first. While it scared her for a second, Chaewon just shook her head and turned back to the three girls at the table. Eunchae and her Mom seemed fine. But, there was something off about Yunjin that Chaewon just couldn't put her finger on. Her breathing was a bit off, and her hands flew up to cover her ears.
"Babe, you okay?"
"Yeah," Yunjin nodded, but Chaewon could tell her mind was somewhere far away, "I-it's hot in here. I think I'm going to go breathe in the hall for a minute."
"Huh?" Before she could say anything Yunjin was already out the door, and Chaewon couldn't help but feel a bit concerned.
"Is she okay?" Her mother asked, looking over at the now closed front door.
"Yeah, I'll check up on her in a minute. She doesn't like to be crowded when she's like this."
"Is she doing okay? You know, after what happened."
For the most part Yunjin had been better that Chaewon had anticipated. The lawyer had gotten some pamphlets of how to deal with traumatic experiences, but between Yunjin's therapy and willingness to take care of herself she had been handling everything fine. Other than her first night back, she maybe had two other episodes that weren't as bad and both of those had been triggered by stress. "Yeah she's good, I just think she's stressed out right now. She's a bit shy."
"Oh, should I leave her alone then?"
"Maybe, just for a little bit." Chaewon shrugged, "I don't get why she's so nervous."
"She probably just wants us to like her." Suzy offered, adding a Pom Pom to ornament. That's true- Yunjin always wanted people to like her. She may not show it, but especially people close to Chaewon she really sought for the approval of. Hana was a prime example, after Chaewon had told her off for not making an effort, Yunjin really tried. She needed to take a deep breath and lay off of Yunjin for a bit.
Eventually Yunjin came back in, made herself a glass of orange juice and helped Eunchae with her ornament. The two of them looked so cute with their matching outfits, even if it wasn't that dressed up. Yunjin would hand Eunchae some glitter or a marker and the girl would draw just to show it to the detective and grin when Yunjin told her it looked pretty. Two goofs. Apparently her Mom thought so as well, watching the two of them quietly a small smile on her lips. You picked a good one. She could see it written all over her face.
The tree was set up and the five of them started placing the ornaments on the tree. Chaewon was never one for the perfectly themed trees with matching bulbs, instead having a bunch of mismatching ornaments that all held meaning. She even bought a few new ones for this year already, a small family of snowmen with Yunjin, Chaewon, and her own name inked into it and a baby's first Christmas ornament that had a little space to put a picture of Eunchae into it. When she first moved here this was her favorite part because she didn't have to talk, they could all just put the ornaments on in peace and not have to worry about the language she constantly tripped and stumbled over. Even though now she was fluent she still enjoyed the peace it brought.
Eunchae was getting along with her parents surprisingly well. Her mom and her were engaged in a small conversation, well it was more one sided of Eunchae telling her about her best friend Kyujin. And when her Dad tried to engage in the conversation, Eunchae didn't freak out instead she just held Peng a bit tighter and spoke to him as well. Of course Eunchae was going to sleep in their room tonight, she wasn't that comfortable yet but to see Eunchae call them Grandma and Grandpa was a good sign. Even Yunjin seemed more relaxed now, wrapping her arms around Chaewon when she felt like they weren't looking.
"You know you can hug me while they're looking." Chaewon teased.
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah." Chaewon giggled, leaning back into her as she put a few ornaments up, "You feeling okay."
"Yeah, sorry, it got a bit too loud-"
"The bang scared you huh?"
"A little."
"Sorry." Chaewon frowned, "Is your mom still coming tomorrow?"
"As far as I know." Yunjin bit her lip, turning to look at where Eunchae and Chaewon's parents were now happily playing with the toy train that ran under the tree. "She's getting along well with them."
"I told you, as long as we are calm she's going to be calm too." Chaewon turned her head to press a kiss on Yunjin's cheek, "So make sure to chill."
"Okay, okay. I-I just don't want them to hate me and say we can't get married."
"I don't know anyone that could hate you, plus even if they didn't approve I'd still go for it anyways." Chaewon turned around, pressing a soft kiss on her lips, "Relax."
"Okay, okay."
Yunjin was still very far from relaxed, but she was trying. That's all Chaewon could ask for.