Limoncello
When in Rome“Cucciolo, it will be fine, trust me.”
“Myungsoo, I don’t think you understand this situation. You’re taking me to meet your family. Your whole family. Do they even know we’re dating?”
Myungsoo smiled as if Sungyeol had made a joke. “Of course they do. I text my cousins every day and I had told them about you after our first date.”
“You’re so sappy,” Sungyeol laughed lightheartedly. He looked out the window of the train the two of them were taking to Naples. After two months of dating, he would be spending the weekend with Myungsoo at his grandparents’ home. It felt like a dream and a fairytale all at once. And honestly, Sungyeol couldn’t have been more nervous. “Do you think they’ll like me?”
“Cucciolo, they’re going to love you. I don’t even doubt it for a moment that they will all love you.” Myungsoo kissed his cheek. “What is there to not like?”
“What if I make a bad first impression?” Sungyeol asked, biting his thumb. “I can’t do that – not when I’m meeting your parents for the first time.”
“Sungyeol, I told you – they’re going to adore you,” Myungsoo reassured him. He pat Sungyeol’s thigh affectionately as he kissed his neck. “Let’s take a nap, hm? We still have a while to go before we get to Naples. So let’s take a nap, okay? I stayed up late packing for our trip.”
Sungyeol chuckled. “We’re only going for the weekend, how much did you pack?”
“Not a lot – I just forgot to pack and had to rush it last night.” Myungsoo yawned and rested his head in the nook of Sungyeol’s neck. He closed his eyes and smiled as he felt Sungyeol pat his head and call him a fool. “I know, I know,” agreed. “I forgot since my thoughts were only filled with you.”
Myungsoo peeked one eye open when Sungyeol didn’t respond. He held back a laugh as he grinned and wrapped his arms around Sungyeol’s torso. Snuggling deeper into his neck, he pecked his jawline.
“Are you blushing yet, cucciolo?” he asked, smiling into Sungyeol’s neck.
He can imagine Sungyeol pouting his lips stubbornly as he replied, “No, I’m not.”
“I know you’re blushing, cucciolo.”
“Well, if you know I’m blushing then I obviously don’t need to tell you that I am, right?”
Myungsoo grinned again, screwing his eyes closed tightly as he buried his nose into Sungyeol’s shirt. “It’s always nice to hear you say it.”
Sungyeol rolled his eyes and threaded his fingers through Myungsoo’s hair. “No, thanks.”
Snickering, Myungsoo decided to drop the subject. Sungyeol wasn’t going to admit that he blushed any time soon and Myungsoo needed a good nap anyways. But before he drifted off, he poked Sungyeol’s side affectionately.
“Hm?” Sungyeol responded, resting his cheek on the top of Myungsoo’s head.
“You know how I call you cucciolo?”
“Yes?”
“Don’t you think you should have a nickname for me?”
Sungyeol pursed his lips as he looked up in thought. “A nickname for you? Do you want one?”
“Of course I do! I call you cucciolo, you should call me something too.”
“But I don’t know any cute Italian nicknames to call you.”
“That’s okay – just call me something in Korean. It’ll be cute since you’re from Korea and I’m from Italy.”
“Well…” Sungyeol mused, deep in thought. “If cucciolo means puppy, then I’ll call you… goyangi.”
Myungsoo’s eyes opened as he looked up at Sungyeol, his eyes twinkling in happiness. “Cat?” he repeated.
Sungyeol smiled at him and nodded. “Yes. You’ll be my goyangi.”
Myungsoo felt a warm blush rising on his cheeks. “I love it.”
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“Sungyeol, this is my cousin, Davide.”
Sungyeol smiled at the tall boy who had picked them up from the train station. He was tan with light brown, wavy hair and green eyes. Sungyeol smiled at him nicely. “Hi, Davide,” he said.
Davide said a hello back and raised an amused eyebrow at Myungsoo, who muttered something quickly in Italian. He gave Davide a light punch and Sungyeol wondered what the two of them were thinking.
“Davide actually lives in Rome also,” Myungsoo continued as they followed his cousin out of the station. “He’s the son of the uncle who owns that restaurant. We were supposed to go to Naples with them but they ended up going a little earlier.”
“Oh,” was all that Sungyeol could say. Now that he was actually meeting Myungsoo’s family, it felt intimidating and a little surreal all at once.
Myungsoo held his hand the entire time in the car ride, reassuring him with little kisses on the back of his hand in between his conversation with his cousin. According to Myungsoo, Davide was two years older than him. And not only that, but Myungsoo was one of the younger cousins in his family, so Sungyeol still had to meet many others that were older than him. He felt very intimidated now.
He felt so nervous that he could barely even remember any Italian. He could understand most of what Myungsoo and Davide were talking about, but when they tried to bring him into the conversation, his brain seemed to freeze and forget how to speak Italian. He felt embarrassed but Myungsoo would just reassure him that it was okay and that he would help translate.
When they pulled up to what he assumed was Myungsoo’s grandparents’ house, he was in complete awe. Not only was the house relatively big, but there were beautiful lemon trees everywhere in the yard.
“Wow,” Sungyeol whispered, stepping out of the car. The house was white and looked vintage and pristine at the same time. The yard was very minimal despite the lemon trees and it was all encased with a white, metal fence. There was nothing like it in Korea and he was so amazed at the architecture that it took a light pinch from Myungsoo to get him focused again.
“Come on,” Myungsoo murmured to him gently, tugging him along. “My cousins aren’t here yet so we can go in and meet my grandparents first.”
“Where’s the rest of your family?” Sungyeol asked curiously. The whole place seemed to be rather calm.
Myungsoo smiled at him and wrapped an arm around his waist. “Some other cousins are coming later and they’ll be staying either with us at my grandparents’ house or with one of my uncles. The rest of my family lives in this general area.”
“That must be nice,” Sungyeol mused. “Having a large family living all in the same area.”
Myungsoo nodded as they stepped into the house. The air conditioning felt so lovely on Sungyeol’s skin as he set down his backpack.
“Aye, Myungsoo!”
Myungsoo’s face brightened as he saw a young, male brunet bounding down the staircase and towards him. “Massimo!” he cried, opening his arms to receive a hug. The other male hugged him warmly, clapping him on the back and grinning at him.
“Cucciolo!” Myungsoo said with a grin. “This is my cousin, Massimo.”
Massimo smiled at him and spoke. “Buongiorno! Mi chiamo Massimo! Lei come si chiama?”
“What’s your name?” Myungsoo whispered to him.
“Sono Sungyeol,” he replied shakily, reaching out instinctively for Myungsoo.
After shooting Myungsoo a knowing look, Massimo smiled back at Sungyeol with an extraordinarily bright grin. “Piacere!” he said excitedly. He shook Sungyeol’s hand with enthusiasm and Sungyeol felt slightly more at ease.
Massimo said something very quickly to Myungsoo – something about rooms – and Myungsoo nodded back. Massimo disappeared to hang out with Davide and Myungsoo took Sungyeol’s hand to lead him up the stairs.
“Where are we going?” Sungyeol asked.
“Our room.” Myungsoo smiled at him widely. “We’re going to be sharing one right next to Massimo’s room. Isn’t Massimo the coolest? He works in Florence. I’m the closest to him out of all of my cousins.”
“He seems very friendly,” Sungyeol agreed.
“I can already tell he adores you already. I’m telling you, cucciolo, they’re going to all love you so much. By the end of today alone you’ll already feel like part of the family!”
“That sounds lovely,” Sungyeol giggled.
Myungsoo swung opened the door to one of the guest rooms and Sungyeol laughed. The room was cute and quaint with one queen sized bed in the center. So he would be sharing a bed with Myungsoo.
“I see you’re not fazed by the idea of sharing a bed with me,” Myungsoo teased. He set his bag of clothes down on the floor and flopped down on the bed. “Nice to know!”
Sungyeol smirked to himself. While dating, Myungsoo was still romantically smug as ever but Sungyeol had learned how to put up with it very well and even how to counter it. He thought that maybe Myungsoo was a bad influence on him – making him forward and cheesy with his words – but he decided that it was a good thing. If anything it only proved how close they were.
“Of course I’m not bothered by sharing a bed with you.” Sungyeol climbed up on top of Myungsoo, much to his surprise, and leaned down to touch their noses. “Somebody has to cuddle my goyangi while he sleeps, right?”
And for once, Sungyeol had the immense pleasure of watching Myungsoo turn bright red under him.
Myungsoo looped his arms around Sungyeol’s neck and threaded his fingers into Sungyeol’s wavy red hair. “Cucciolo,” he whined, leaning up for a kiss.
Sungyeol giggled and complied, giving him short and sweet pecks.
“That was really hot just now, you know?” Myungsoo murmured in between their lips. “Like, really hot.”
“You think it’s hot when I call you goyangi?” Sungyeol asked with a playful smile.
“No.” Myungsoo laughed and rolled his eyes. “You know that’s not what I mean, baby.” He bit his bottom lip, eyeing Sungyeol. He reached up to steal another kiss again. “It makes me want to do more than cuddle tonight.”
Sungyeol laughed and sat up. Flicking Myungsoo’s forehead, he exclaimed, “Cuddles only, dummy! We’re in your grandparents’ house, we can’t do anything!”
Myungsoo pouted as he gripped at the bottom of Sungyeol’s shirt. “Sure we can. No one will mind. …Except maybe Massimo, but who cares about him?”
“Myungsoo, no,” Sungyeol repeated firmly. He got off of Myungsoo’s waist and laid down next to him. “Just cuddles.”
Snickering, Myungsoo sat up from the bed. “I’ll convince you eventually.”
“No, you won’t. There are too many people staying in this house for you to convince me at all.”
“Yes, I will.” Myungsoo winked at him and took his hand. “Now come on, let’s go meet the rest of my family.”
“Your family is here already? Will your grandparents’ anniversary party be starting soon?”
Myungsoo laughed heartily, throwing his head back. He turned back to look at Sungyeol cheekily and send a sparkling eye-smile his way. “The party isn’t for another two days. But all the cousins are already here because we all want to hang out.”
“Oh,” Sungyeol replied.
“Come on, cucciolo – let’s go introduce you to them.”
A smile grew on Sungyeol’s face as he responded, “I’m coming, goyangi.”
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Meeting Myungsoo’s family was a ginormous blur. In the time they had unpacked their bags, the bulk of Myungsoo’s family had appeared downstairs. The sound of children running around and adults bustling invaded the air – the ambience was so familial that even Sungyeol was warmed by it.
Myungsoo seemed to have a line of cousins ready to meet him. Sungyeol couldn’t remember most of the smaller kids, but he remembered the older ones pretty well. Besides Davide and Massimo, there were two girls named Chiara and Luna, another older blonde male named Romano and a younger girl named Lucia. Sungyeol thought they all had the most beautiful names. But before he could get to know all of Myungsoo’s cousins, he was whisked away to meet the adults.
“Nonna!” Myungsoo called out like a child as he ran to hug his grandmother. She was a stout woman with a mountain of white curls stacked on her head. Her wrinkles deepened as she smiled at Myungsoo’s presence and gave him a hug.
“Myungsoo!” she said happily, her voice sounding so bright and happy despite being hollow like most old women’s.
Her blue eyes twinkled as she regarded Sungyeol carefully and whispered Myungsoo a question. Myungsoo giggled to himself softly and responded, “Ragazzo.”
Boyfriend. Sungyeol could feel his pride swell at the term. He was pleasantly surprised when Myungsoo’s grandmother gave him a hug as well and kissed his cheeks. “Benvenuto,” she told him softly.
It was only for a short moment but it felt like Sungyeol had officially been welcomed. He greeted Myungsoo’s grandfather afterwards – a tall man with strong features and kind eyes. But the most important people Sungyeol met that afternoon were Myungsoo’s parents.
“Sungyeol,” Myungsoo said as he led him over by his hand. “These are my parents.”
An older Korean woman and dark-haired Italian man smiled at him and doled out hugs.
“You must be Sungyeol!” the woman spoke in flawless Korean. “Myungsoo has been telling the whole family so much about you!”
“Oh, really?” Sungyeol replied, feeling flattered. “He doesn’t just talk about me with his cousins?”
“Well, all of his cousins give us updates every weekend,” Myungsoo’s father replied. He spoke in Korean that was heavily accented. Sungyeol could see where Myungsoo’s style of speech came from. “We have big family dinners every Sunday night and sometimes all they’ll talk about is Myungsoo and his special boy. Thank you for making him so happy.”
Myungsoo blushed by his side and Sungyeol grinned. “It’s my honor,” he said, his eyes sparkling happily. He felt Myungsoo squeeze his hand and he felt his chest swell even more. He didn’t know why he was so proud to be paraded around as Myungsoo’s boyfriend, but it made him happy.
“I’m so glad he’s got himself a Korean boyfriend,” his mother said excitedly, clasping her hands together. “He was always so Italian like his father, I always wondered if he stayed in touch with his Korean side at all when I wasn’t around.”
“Umma,” Myungsoo whined, groaning. “Don’t embarrass me in front of him, please. He still thinks I’m cool.”
Sungyeol scoffed. “No, I don’t.”
Myungsoo’s parents laughed. His mother looked at Sungyeol with the same eye-smile that he recognized on Myungsoo. “Well, it’ll be so nice to hear some more Korean being spoken around here. Your father and I are going to go help out your nonna in the kitchen. We’ll see you two later, okay?”
“Okay,” Myungsoo agreed. “What are the other cousins up to?”
“They’re in the yard picking lemons to help your uncle make limoncello,” his father replied. “You two should go and show Sungyeol how it’s made. I’m sure he’d love it.”
“Oh, they’re making limoncello?! Why didn’t you say so! Come on, cucciolo, you have to be a part of this – it’s so much fun with the cousins.”
He tugged Sungyeol away from his parents and towards the front of the house. It seemed like Sungyeol was being tugged everywhere, but he was okay with it. Myungsoo’s hands felt safe. They ran into Massimo, who was coming in with arms full of lemons. His eyes were bright with excitement as he prattled something off as he passed by them. Sungyeol was still trying to understand the language being spoken so quickly.
“To the backyard!” Myungsoo told him. “That’s where my uncle is right now. He’ll need help zesting all the lemons.”
The two of them didn’t bother to put shoes on as they went out into the backyard. The soft grass tickled Sungyeol’s feet. All the cousins were outside, crowded around a large wooden pail with piles of lemons around them. One of Myungsoo’s uncles stood in the middle, teaching one of the smaller children how to zest a lemon properly.
“Myungsoo!” Romano called over, waving at the two of them. They headed over and Sungyeol almost flushed when Myungsoo’s uncle recognized him.
“Cucciolo!” he sang, opening his arms widely for a hug that Sungyeol was glad to return. “Mi fa molto piacere rivederti!”
“You remember my uncle from Rome, right?” Myungsoo murmured to him as he handed him a ripe lemon.
“How could I forget?” Sungyeol chuckled. “You had him deliver a drink to me.”
Myungsoo laughed loudly as he grabbed a couple of lemon peelers. “Oh, right. Here take this peeler. Just zest the lemon into the pail, okay? My uncle’s going to use it all to make limoncello.”
Sungyeol squat down closer to the pail with all the other cousins. They probably looked a little silly, all squatting around a pail and zesting lemons into it. But Sungyeol felt very flattered to be treated as part of the family already.
“What’s limoncello?” he asked.
“It’s a drink,” Myungsoo explained, zesting away at the lemon with experienced hands. “It’s alcoholic but it’s not strong. I think you’ll really like it.”
“Are we going to drink it today?”
Myungsoo chuckled once more. “No, it needs to steep for at least three days. My uncle should have it ready to drink by the time my grandparents’ party comes around.”
“It sounds pretty nice already,” Sungyeol admitted.
“You’ll love it,” Myungsoo reassured him. “Just like how my family loves you. And just like how I love you.”
Sungyeol giggled. “Thank you, goyangi. You’re so sweet,” he sang teasingly.
Myungsoo leaned over to kiss him on the cheek. “Ti adoro, you know that?”
“With all the times you’ve said it to me, I think I do know it by now.”
“I’m going to keep saying to you forever then. I’ll never stop.”
Sungyeol giggled at him and kissed him on the lips this time.
“Myungsoo! La smetti per favore!”
“Chiudi la bocca, Massimo!”
a/n ;
ayeee guess whos back ?? bac k ag ain??
anyways lol i finally updated! sorry it took so long,
i got a job recently so my schedule's been more
hectic than usual!!!
anyways i really hope you liked this!! just something
short and cute like all the other chapters! yeol
meeting the fam and being all friendly
i think theres gonna be another fam chapter and then
probably 1-2 more chaps after that. wow, ending so
fast!!!
and yeah man, yeol nicknamed myung goyangi
which means cat.
alright and before i leave, a small note --
Piacere - nice to meet you
Mi fa molto piacere rivederti - nice to see you again
La smetti per favore - please stop that
Chiudi la bocca - shut your mouth
lol my italian is getting lazier. anyways
see you in the next update!!!
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