My mother is not the kind of woman who would get mad because I’m having a ual relationship with someone, she’s more of the kind to get mad if I kept it a secret from her, having to raise two girls by herself, and knowing she wouldn’t be able to be around the house a lot to keep an eye from us she opted for having a friend-like relationship with one of us, that person being me, a relationship completely based on trust and honesty.

 

We build it in a way I’m comfortable talking to her about anything at any moment, it also helped us understands each other well and support each other in a way most wouldn’t understand.

 

The day she gave me the talk, something everyone says is an uncomfortable conversation to have with your parents, she made it very easy and chill, I brought the subject up first after we had a class about it which left me more confused than anything else.

 

I remember telling Joy about it and her pointing out how great my mom is to be so open and patient about any subject.

 

The sense of pride seeing Joy’s eyes in awe was one of the first times I truly understood how lucky I am to have her as my mother and friend.

 

She always says she made me grew up too fast, how sorry she is I missed a lot because having to help around so much, she thinks it was selfish of her, it makes her guilty seeing how Yeri has it so much differently, which is true but I always saw it as a great thing.

 

I’m proud of it.

 

I’ve never felt bitter about it, it’s part of our close relationship and mutual understanding of each other, we know what we need and we make our best to aid whatever situation we face, together like a unit.

 

We’re a team.

 

I love her so damn much.

 

But damn can the woman be a lot to handle when she has a reason to tease someone, give her the right weapons and she’ll go for the kill, no hesitation, no mercy.

 

She enjoys it.

 

So yes, my mother would never get mad about me for having but I know damn well she’s not going to be pleased about slipping and getting caught in such a stupid way, oh no, she won’t, she’s going to be pretty annoyed at our idiocy, and she’ll get upset about making Mrs. Kang call her.

 

And of course, tease me.

 

Hell, she might use this story on my future wedding toast if I ever do get married.

 

Tell my children about it, if I have any.

 

Yes, I’m sure it’ll be funny in the future.

 

But right now, in the present time, she’ll make me tell her everything and for the first time in my life, I feel embarrassed to talk to her as openly as we always do.

 

I’m embarrassed I am the cause Mrs. Kang looked so hurt last night, embarrassed my mom had to receive a call telling her all kinds of things I’m unaware of.

 

Is no surprise I’m trying to avoid the woman for as long as I can.

 

Stalling the inevitable.

 

Which...is most likely a bad idea, I’m only giving her more time to come up with stuff to say, but t right now I don’t care.

 

It’s a stupid plan but to be fair I never thought I’d be in a situation remotely similar to this.

 

More than avoiding my mom, though, I’m avoiding facing reality, that Mrs. Kang saw both me and her daughter on her daughter’s bed in the middle of doing...something, I really don’t want to know what she told my mom...she probably isn’t a fan of me anymore.

 

Ugh, we were doing so great too.

 

I rub my eyes trying to not think too much on the matter and focus on...well... not running into my mother when I inevitably leave my bedroom.

 

I didn’t even have to try to avoid her yesterday, it was easy, she got home way too late to even want to talk about it, I was already in my room very awake but with the lights off and she was too tired and in need of a goodnight of sleep but she did send some text alluding to the problem while she was at work and I was pretending to be asleep.

 

I just had the most interesting talk with your mother in law

 

Can you guess what about? :D

 

I’ll be home late, remember to lock the door before going to sleep

 

You do remember what a lock is, right? ;)

 

Sigh.

 

She’s so exhausting.

 

I take a peek through the door and feel relieved to see my mom’s bedroom door closed shut, she must be sleeping still, hopefully.

 

According to the chore’s board on the fridge, she has to leave for work in a couple of hours, if the schedule hasn’t changed she might use all the free time she has for sleeping like usual, which leaves me off the hook for now.

 

Feeling a bit relieved I get out of my bedroom trying to be as quiet as possible, no one can ever be too careful really, my plan is to shuffle my way to the kitchen, make breakfast for everyone and leave before she can wake up, we can talk at night after I know first hand what happened between Mrs. Kang and my girlfriend from the girl’s own mouth.

 

Because, for some reason, Seulgi has also been avoiding me like I’m trying with my mother and didn’t get any kind of information last night like I was hoping and I'm still too nervous and on edge to deal with all the teasing, first I want to know in how much trouble we are in.

 

I manage to get downstairs without making the stairs creak and sigh in relief when I’m at the bottom just steps away from the kitchen, when I reach the kitchen door suddenly it hits me how stupid I’m acting and silently laugh at my ridiculous actions.

 

“You’re acting like a kid.” I tell myself sighing through my nose. “Take anything you can from the kitchen then you’ll be out of here.”

 

For some reason, the kitchen door is locked, I twist the knob a couple of times more but it still won't budge.

 

“What the hell.”

 

“What’s wrong, sweetie?”

 

The sudden voice appearing out of nowhere makes my heart jump to my throat startled.

 

“What’s wrong with you?” I turn to meet my very amused mother seated at the table near the door, holding my chest feeling my own erratic heartbeat I throw a glare at the woman not appreciating being scared like this so early in the morning.

 

“Good morning to you too.” My mom sips her coffee seemingly without a care in the world. “Can’t enter the kitchen?” Suddenly I’m not feeling very confident under the woman’s stare, they are too sparkly and she seems to be way too amused for my liking.

 

I don’t like it.

 

Why did I think I could outsmart her?

 

“Yeah” I mumble.

 

“And why is that?” She says behind her cup.

 

“The...door is locked” I explain looking away feeling very awkward “I’ll go find the key.”

 

“Oh.” my mom exclaims with fake excitement “So you do know what a lock is for.” I roll my eyes and groan looking at the ceiling. “You could’ve fooled me.”

 

There it is.

 

The woman uses her foot to push out the chair closest to her inviting me to join her, an invitation without an option for refusal, she keeps sipping at her coffee with that small chaste smile playing on her lips and eyes staring right into mine hoping to make me nervous.

 

But I’m not nervous, I’m embarrassed to have put myself, us, in this situation.

 

I sigh exasperatedly dragging my feet to the table, there’s no way to avoid this now, I’ll sit down and let the woman say everything I’m sure she rehearsed already.

 

“How long have you been there waiting?” I ask squinting my eyes in total disbelief

 

“Not as long as I thought I’d be.” She sips her coffee looking very pleased with herself. “Wasn’t expecting you to try to flee so early, I give you points for effort, I know how much you dislike mornings.”

 

And I give her points for her strong commitment to almost give me a heart attack first thing in the morning.

 

“How did you know?”

 

How did she know I was trying to escape?

 

“Well, you didn’t wait for me to get home and talk, then pretended to be asleep when I went in looking for you.” She numbers her points with her fingers. “Also, you’re aware my phone tells me if you read my messages and ignore me, right?”

 

“Right, well ok, I’m here.” I sigh finding the table very interesting, she says nothing though, for what it feels like an eternity I can only hear the sipping of her coffee filling the room, annoyed I look up at her and find her wearing the same expression she had since I came downstairs. “Mom…”

 

“I’m waiting for you to tell me what happened.” She puts her cup down and leans forward on the table, is my mind tricking me, or are her eyes really sparkling with amusement?

 

The woman appears jovial and carefree compared to Mrs. Kang last night, to an outsider it could seem as if she really doesn’t care about the subject but she’s my mother, I know better, she might not be furious and unreasonable but I do know she has something to say.

 

The memory of that time she discovered I was dating someone comes to mind, my first girlfriend, it was as innocent as two kids dating could get, we held hands in the hallways, we bought each other snacks, wrote little notes, and at most, we kissed after class, but I still felt the need to keep it a secret from her.

 

Until it wasn’t.

 

She had sat on my bed one morning clasping her hands tightly together on top of her thighs, her whole body was stiff while she masked her nervousness with an awkward smile, I remember thinking she would be mad I was dating someone, because it was how it’s supposed to work, how my friends said it worked, how it was with their parents.

 

It was unknown territory for us, me hiding something.

 

We even talked about before and relationships too! It made absolutely no sense for me to hide this from her.

 

For a whole total of... Eleven days.

 

Then my mother asked me something in a sad tone she couldn't hide.

 

“Honey, don’t you trust your mom?”

 

I’ll never forget how guilty I felt for keeping something from her.

 

“You know what happened already.” I mutter while crossing my arms just to give myself something to do. “We don’t need to relive it.”

 

“Oh but we so do, I want to hear it from you.” She tries to fight a little smile forming on her lips but I catch it before she returns to her neutral expression, oh she’s enjoying it for sure.

 

“Right.” I sigh.

 

“I’m all ears.”

 

I’ve never felt more uncomfortable in front of my mother, it’s a completely new feeling and I don’t like it, back then, the feeling came from fear, fear of the unknown, today it comes from embarrassment.

 

We both know I can do better.

 

“As you know by now…” I clear my throat. “Seulgi and I were stupid and got caught in the act by her mom.” My cheeks are bright red when I finish my very hurried explanation. “And that’s all there’s to it, I don’t know what more you want to know.”

 

“Oh no, I got that part, what I want is to understand why.”

 

“Why?”

 

“Yes, why.”

 

“Why, what?”

 

The woman takes a dramatic pause and then rolls her eyes when I seem not follow what she means.

 

“Why you couldn’t wait one day for me to be out of the house like I usually am, you know well I have no problems with it, I thought I made it clear you can trust me, you don’t need to hide here, this house should be your safe space.” The woman exhales loudly, clearly she’s disappointed in me. “Why did you two even went there? I truly don’t understand, and if you two had to go there why couldn’t you lock the damn door.” My mom asks with curiosity, no anger, but clearly, the woman is annoyed.

 

My mother runs a hand through her long dark hair exposing her porcelain skin and the dark circles beneath her eyes, I internally wince at the sight, she’s losing so much precious sleep thanks to my stupidity.

 

Yet she’s here acting like she’s mad at a friend who went back to their toxic ex rather than a mother scolding her daughter.

 

Maybe I would feel less crappy if she was mad instead.

 

“I know, I’m sorry, we should’ve waited.” I say very remorsefully. “Really, mom, you’re absolutely right.”

 

“Yes you really should have.” she makes a pause to see if I have something else to say but I don’t know what that could be. “What happened?”

 

“What do you mean?” I put my hands on my pockets wishing for the garment to swallow me whole and disappear, the last thing I want is to give more details.

 

This is the downside of having a mother with no filter.

 

“What made you go there?”

 

I exhale loudly looking past the woman, to the window and the still slightly darkened sky.

 

This is so embarrassing.

 

“How to put this, we were…” I bit my lip stopping myself from saying too much. “…You know Seulgi has been down so I thought of trying to be more...Eh...Assertive...Because she likes it, it was all mostly talk, and I did tell her to bring us here later.” My mom can’t prevent a chuckle to erupt from , I want to scoff but I’m in no position to defend myself this time around. “But I think it’s clear by now it backfired, I ended up edging her too much then I too got caught up in it and…Yeah…” I sigh frustrated at my past self and her lack f self control. “...We didn’t expect her to come back so soon either.” I justify myself for not locking the door since the woman clearly won’t let that go any time soon.

 

“Ah, to be a teenager again.” the woman says mocking me. “Still, you should always do it, just to be safe, that house is unknown territory for you, thought I taught you better.”

 

“I know, I know.” I exhale loudly.

 

“Better be safe than… caught.”

 

I scoff a laugh.

 

“Couldn’t you two use Seulgi’s car if you were that impatient? I don’t understand why go to her parents'.”

 

I can’t believe the woman just said that.

 

“Mom!”

 

“I’m just saying.” She sips her coffee unbothered. “Maybe it’s because your grandparents were very strict with me but I was more creative.”

 

I didn’t need to know that.

 

“I promise I’ll be more creative with places to be with my girlfriend in the future, ok?”

 

“That’s all I’m asking from my teenage daughter.” She jokes sighing dramatically.

 

“But yeah...that’s the story of how we got caught, I don’t know what else I could say.”