“I’m home!” I announce, stepping inside the house. The door shuts behind me and I step towards the couch right across, slinging my school bag over it. “Mom, are you here?!” I shout once again.

“In the kitchen!”

I hurry over in my tippy toes and soon see my mother’s back, her in an apron, and she’s swirling something on a sauce pan. She smiles when she sees me, eyes turned half moons, and a free hand curls around me as I hug her on the waist.

“Welcome home, sweetie,” she murmurs, then kisses me on the forehead. I grin under her grasp, giggling like a happy school girl. (I am, though.)

“So, um, Mom…” I trail off, raising an eyebrow.

She hums, focus back on the stove.

“I have a school project with Roxy that’s due this Friday, and we’re both sure we can’t finish it at school together so if it’s alright…” My voice twists to squeak at my impending question, “if I sleepover at her house tonight? And tomorrow?”

“Sleepover?” Mom echoes inquisitively.

I nod, a determined “Yes, sleepover,” coming out of my mouth. Hopefully, she’ll say yes…?

“Oh, I don’t know, Cath,” her tone changes significantly, and I know protective Mom is showing up, “You still have school tomorrow…”

“And it’s for a school project, so…?” I point out.

“And it’s on a weekday,” she adds, moving her eyes to me begrudgingly. Her hand is still working the tomato sauce, I see now, like it’s automatic. She’s not really giving in to me…

“But mom…!” An unlady-like groan bubbles in my throat.

“Well, why don’t you ask your Umma?” She lifts a shoulder, giving me an apologetic look.

“Ugh, fine I will.” I grumble; Mom’s attention is back to the stove again, and I can hear her turning up the heat when I’m out of the kitchen.

I walk to the other end of the living room and venture to the other end of the closed hallway, stopping at the fourth door I see. I knock twice and call out, “Umma?”

“It’s unlocked,” comes a voice muffled by the door I’m staring at.

I twist the knob and step right in, careful to move the papers spread out on the wooden floor. Like everyday, I see my Umma, sitting on her feet on the floor while she organizes an assortment of papers.

“Oh, Joohyun, how was school?” Her eyes hover to me and she grins, a dimple surfacing on one side. She takes off her glasses and reaches an arm out to me. I comply to her hold with a smile.

“Hey, Umma,” I greet her first, kissing her cheek. “School’s fine. Oh but can I ask a favor? Please, pretty please?” I ask with a sweet, sweet smile, fluttering my eyes.

“Yeah? Sure?” She says, grinning, “Ask away, kiddo.” She casts an arm out, opening her fist.

“Can I sleepover at Roxy’s place tonight and tomorrow for a school project that’s due this friday?” I comb my thoughts in one go, hoping I’ll get her permission this time.

She nods in understanding mouthing “ah” soundlessly. She doesn’t say much, probably thinking. “Well…”

“Uh huh?” I motion her to continue, crossing my fingers behind me, smiling.

“What did Mommy say?”

And my smile falls short in an instant. “But I want your opinion instead of Mommy’s.” I retort.

A knowing smile appears on Umma’s face and she chuckles, “She said no, didn’t she?”

I purse my lips together, exhaling loudly through my nose. “But if I asked you, will you let me go?” I go back to biting my lip, attempting a sad look.

But Umma mirrors me, showing pity over me. “Oh, Joohyun, well, I trust you can be fine with, um…”

“Roxy,” I fill in.

“Uh… what’s her Korean name again?”

I roll my eyes and huff, albeit smiling, “Yoona? Umma~” I grumble lightly.

“I know her name! I was just making sure…” Umma clears , “so yes, I think you’re okay with Yoona by your side, kiddo, but-”

“But?” My eyes droop lower in dissatisfaction, along with my shoulders.

“But if Mommy says no, then… it’s 50-50 then?”

I mentally slap my head on a brick wall. This is going nowhere. Agh.

“So what am I going to do?! Stay for awhile and come back again? Is that it?”

But as if she’s backing away, Umma goes back to filing the papers on the floor. “Try asking Mommy that question, Joo. Negotiate with her, yeah? You can do it.”

I bite back a scoff and stand up, dusting my knees. I hear her whisper a “Fighting!” as I close the door and I take a deep breath, brisk-walking back to Mommy’s side.

“Catherine, sweetie!” Mommy greets me when we meet again. She’s washing the dishes this time, the food she prepared already in a slow cooker on the stove I presume. “So what did Umma say?”

I grunt a bit before briefing her in my arms-over-chest position, watching her scrub a casserole on the sink, “She said yes but she knows you said no so now I’m back here to ask if I can have an extended stay instead? Like, a stay over until before bed time for the two days?” I change my demeanor and almost opt to go down my knees but sand my hands together instead, pouting. “Please, Mommy?”

“Before sleep time, huh? Before sleep time, so that is…?”

“Um, uh-” I whip my eyes to the wall clock and back to her hands, “10 PM?”

“But isn’t 9 PM your sleeping time?”

My face grows sour by her continuous oppositions. “It’s an exception. We really need to work our butts off for Mister Brown’s subject, and um, you know how hard History is under him, right?”

A grimace unconsciously surfaces on Mom’s face and I feel a wave of agreement going on. “Right, you have old Brown. Yikes.” She scrubs extra hard this time, using her whole arm. She continues, “I hated his yakking, he deliberately gave zero readings so we could write everything based on what we heard. Reading his writing was like reading scribbles, ick.”

“He’s still the same, Mom,” I decide to make small talk, talking in a clipped smile.

“After 20 years? Seriously?” Mom stops scrubbing to laugh, “Shouldn’t he be retiring already?”

“Next year he will,” I inform, nodding.

“Oh.” Mom comments. “Well, I hope he isn’t your teacher again next time around.”

I listen back to the sound of her scrubbing. “So, Mom, the stay over?”

There’s a few moments gone over before she replies, “I guess I could let you be if it’s that way…”

“Really?” I smile.

“Oh, wait. I cannot pick you up though, I’m at the village’s meeting. Try asking Umma if she can?”

I skip over to Umma’s side this time, happy that I made progress on Mom’s side. “Umma, she said yes!” I bombard, opening the door.

“That’s great!” She says, shuffling some files together in an envelope. “So what’d she say yes to?”

I drop to my knees on Umma’s side, ready to talk, “I can stay over until 10 PM, tonight and tomorrow.”

“Oh yes, that is great news. I knew you had it in you, Joo!” Umma gives me a thumbs up, winking over a wide smile.

Amused by her antic, I get onto my next concern, “She can’t pick me up later because of, uh, something-something,” I roll around my words and my hands, funny enough, “so, Umma, can you pick me up instead?”

At this, Umma stops. “What time again?”

“10 PM.”

She looks up for a moment, and slowly nods, “Hrm, sure I’ll do it. I’ll pick you up at ten at…”

I give her the look.

“...Yoona’s place.”

“Right.” I nod, smiling appreciatively. “Thank you thank you thank you thank you!” I burst some words of gratitude, squeezing myself around her thin waist.

Umma’s laugh vibrates along her skin I’m touching on, and I feel her warm hands patting my back and hair. “Anytime, kiddo. Text me if you happen to finish earlier, okay?”

I snort, releasing myself under her. “That’s not gonna happen, but alright, I will.” I stand up, slightly bending on my knees, still looking at her. “I’ll be going now, then?”

“Sure, bye kid---wait, how’re you going there?”

“I’m gonna walk?”

“What time is it now, by the way…”

“Um, around quarter to five?” I check my phone.

“It’ll be dark before you can reach her house. That’s not good.” Umma’s eyebrows knits together. “Can you ask Mom to take you there instead?”

Unbelievable. Is she serious---whoa-kay, yup, she is. I better move out of her protective gaze now.

“Mom, Umma says you have to drive me to Roxy’s place ‘cause it’ll be too dark outside to walk to her house,” I cut right through my business, growing tired of this back-and-forth pace I’ve done.

“Oh dear, but I’m busy right now!” Mom says over her stirring on the stove, boiling some hard pasta right now. Why is she even cooking so early? “I’ll be going out to the meeting as soon as I’m done with all this, would that be fine?”

“But I’m already late by then.”

“What should we do? Oh dear oh dear---Oh! Come and ask Auntie Megan to drive you there. That’d be fine, right? Ask Umma just in case she has a better option, okay, sweetie?”

I should most probably be walking out right now. I’m sure I can get to Roxy’s before the dark comes but knowing Umma might scold me later, I go over to her side now. Again.

Umma was at the corner of the walls this time, reading over some bills and receipts tucked in a small folder. She notices my presence and she smiles, asking, “So, you’re going now?”

I shake my head. “Mommy can’t take me there so she told me to ask Auntie Megan---or Yuri, as you call her, instead.”

“Auntie Yuri?” Umma’s eyes doubles and she waves her hand in dismissal. “Joohyun, you can’t go to there right now. She’s staying over at Auntie Sooyeon’s place, remember?”

“What even-” I carelessly stomp my feet, feeling agitated. “You and Mommy are too overprotective of me! I can’t stand going back and forth and feeling doused under scrutiny and I’m really tired now. Again and again, ‘go ask Mommy’, ‘try asking Umma instead’, and it feels even more frustrating because I feel like I have an infinite amount of ‘go ask mom’s to go over my whole life because you both still see me as a child!”

I can’t help it. I had to explode, sooner or later.

“Joohyun… oh no, dearie, Joohyun, please don’t cry-”

“You’re treating me too much like a child. I’m already way past my princess hours, Umma.” I exasperate, uncooperative tears spilling out my eyes. “God, I’m fifteen, for goodness sake.”

Someone knocks on the door.

“Catherine?”

It’s Mom.

“I’m fine, Mom. I just… ugh, nothing.” I sniff.

“Taeyeon, what happened?” Mom’s voice is nearer than I expected. She’s by Umma’s side if I’m correct. They’re whispering.

“Um… puberty? Teenage angst, I guess?”

Ha ha, very funny, Umma.

“Tch, yah.”

“O-Ow! Okay, fine. She’s stressed. We added onto it, saying ‘go ask Mom’ too many times to her liking and she blew up.”

“Oh dear…”

Oh dear is right. Oh dear, why did I even have to blow up? I’m such a mess, aren’t I?

“What should we do, Fany-ah? How can we…” Sigh.

The hard feelings go away as fast I let them out. I turn around, looking back at my worried parents. “Look, I’m sorry for shouting at you, Umma. I shouldn’t have exploded my anger onto you. Also, I’m sorry for butting in your cooking time, Mom. I know you do better when you’re alone in the kitchen. Okay. Look. I…” I can feel the heat fan off my face. “I’m happy to have amazing parents as you both. I’m grateful for everything you’ve done and are doing for my sake, but sometimes, just.. loosen up a little, please? Let me have some adult decision makings to myself but I’m alright with being guided and advised on my way, just… please, don’t be too…”

“Overprotective?” Umma fills in.

“Unpleasant and absentmindedly talking?” Mom also admits.

I make a small smile. “Dramatic. Don’t think too much into it. Let me have some space, and I’ll gladly give you both yours.”

“Okay.” Umma says, intertwining her fingers around Mom’s and I see her smile sweetly at her wife, who showed crescents for eyes in return. “We’re sorry too, Joohyun.” Umma says back to me.

“We’ll try to see you as a young lady, Catherine.” Mom says too.

“Okay. But before that, hug me? Please, both of you?”

Both smile and nod, accepting the big baby that is me in their arms. I cherish their warmth and love more than ever, and I know, somehow, we bonded closer as a family after my little tantrum.

“So, Joohyun,” Umma starts, “tell you what, I’ll go over and drive you to Yoona’s house. Then, I’ll try to fetch you later after dropping your Mom off at her meeting. Alright?”

“Sounds good to me.” I say helplessly. “I really want to finish that project and get back to watching Keroro with Sunny.”

Umma snorts, “Aaand of course. Haha. Why, is Sunny already finished with hers?”

“Hm, I don’t know, but she’s with the tall kid, Summer Choi, I think? They’re a great pair.” I comment, smiling.

“Great pair. I see.” Umma wiggles her eyebrows. She whispers to Mom, “who is Summer again?”

“Choi Sooyoung,” Mom and I answer, smiling.

“Right. I knew that.”

Mom looks over Umma questioning, “Oh really? How about your second cousin, Tae? Do you know Hyo’s English name?”

“O-Of course! It’s Venus… right?”

“...no, Taeyeon, it’s Aphrodite, oh of course it’s Venus!”

“O-Ow! Fany-ah!! Joohyun... wah, Mom is hitting me!”

“Because you don’t bother remembering your daughter’s friends and your friends’ English names! Seriously, Erika? Seriously?”

“Geez, sorry, okay?”

“Plus, you call that a hit, Tae? How about this-” Smooch. “-then?”

“...it’s a boo boo kiss. Huhu. I love you, Fany-ah, don’t forget that, okay?”

“Never will.”

And there is the scene I should really not, like, ever see at this age.

“Can you please drop me at Roxy’s place now? You can kiss all you want when I’m not here. Guys. Guys. Umma. Ugh. Mom?”

I’m going to be sick. They should be grateful I love them both very much. I wish Roxy would like me in that way too.

Ah,fluff is life.

-feefaifangirl aka Jun ♡