This is something that I have been working on for MONTHS. It went through so many changes and so much editing and it was just a pain but I also hold it very near and dear to me because it reminded me of my own that I had in 2013. I hope you all enjoy it. 

In the Latino community, one of the biggest events in someone’s life, more specifically for a girl, is the Quinceañera. A girl turning 15 is such an important event, just as important as a baby reaching 100 days in the Korean culture. And Mariska, was no exception to this event. Even though she was raised by a Korean man and a White woman, she was still Mexican-American and Ivy tried her best to keep Mariska close to the heritage that she was born with and would’ve been raised with had her birth mom not died. Mariska’s biological grandparents were a lot of help for that though and Ivy was glad that they remained in Mariska’s life.

“Ivy, Mariska is almost 14 now, isn’t she?” Rina, Mariska’s biological grandmother, asked. Ivy and Mariska were currently in a video call with her and Aaron, Mariska’s biological grandfather.

“Uh, yes she is. Why?” Ivy wondered.

“Have you began planning for her Quinceañera?” Rina wondered. Ivy and Mariska shared a look before turning back to the computer screen.

“Uh…no, grandma.” Mariska sheepishly said.

“What?! You better get started on it soon! You should’ve started planning sooner.” Rina exclaimed.

“Uh, sorry, Rina. We’ve been pretty busy and we haven’t really talked about it. I would need to discuss it with Yoongi as well.” Ivy explained, taking note of the time. “Mariska, you need to go to sleep soon. You have church tomorrow.” Ivy said.

“We’ll let you go. Let us know what you plan to do so we can do our best to help you from here. Goodnight, Mariska.” Aaron said with a smile.

“Goodnight grandma, goodnight grandpa. Love you.” Mariska grinned, blowing kisses.

“Bye, we’ll be in touch.” Ivy assured before hanging up.

“Mama, am I going to have a Quinceañera?” Mariska asked. Ivy sighed as she pet her daughter’s head.

“We’ll talk to your dad tomorrow after you get home. For now, go to bed.” Ivy told her.

“Kay, mama. Goodnight.” Mariska walked out the room, leaving Ivy to contemplate everything.

Ivy remembers when her best friend, Naomi, first told her that she was pregnant. Ivy felt so elated but also pissed off because Naomi’s baby daddy flat out told her that he didn’t want to be involved. She had never wanted to kill someone so bad but Naomi assured her that she was fine and didn’t need that man. Of course she took it to court though so she could get child support, Naomi wasn’t stupid. Ivy was at her best friend’s side during the entire pregnancy and before Naomi could find out the gender, she had asked Ivy to be the baby’s godmother. Naomi had wanted the baby to be a boy because she always dreamed of having her daughter be the youngest and have an older brother but that didn’t happen. Even though Naomi said she wanted a boy first, she didn’t care about the gender at the end of the day. When Naomi was told that she was going to have a girl, Ivy could already see the gears turning in Naomi’s head, more than likely already planning the unborn baby’s Quinceañera. Ivy knew how important the Quinceañera was and she knew how much Naomi and Rina would invest into it.

While Ivy and Yoongi tried to raise their kids as equal as possible, there were certain things that Mariska did that the boys didn’t do because Ivy tried to give Mariska certain things that she knew Naomi deemed important. Her religion was one. Ivy and Yoongi came from different religious backgrounds but Ivy, didn’t really practice hers anyways. Naomi had been Catholic, her entire family was Catholic and while Ivy and Naomi both agreed that certain things in the bible were hypocritical, Naomi still wanted to raise Mariska with the Catholic faith. Ivy wasn’t Catholic and neither was Yoongi but Ivy knew how important religion was—to some extent—to Naomi. So when she was told that she was Mariska’s legal guardian after Naomi died, Ivy had already decided that Mariska was going to be raised Catholic. How? At the time she wasn’t sure but she was definitely relieved to hear that a close friend of Namjoon’s was Catholic and after meeting that friend, he had agreed to pick up Mariska when he went to church and take her with him. Now while the Quinceañera was very important, Ivy felt that it wasn’t fair to the boys since they would probably never have a birthday party as big as a Quinceañera. Still, she knew how important this would be to Naomi.

“Jagi, it’s late. What are you still doing up?” Yoongi asked, breaking Ivy out of her thoughts.

“Sorry, I was just thinking about something.” Ivy sighed, prompting Yoongi to move into the room and sit down next to her.

“What is it?” Yoongi wondered.

“Mariska turns 15 in a year and part of her heritage, there is a big event that they do for the girls for their 15^th I know how important it is and how much it’ll mean to her biological family if we do give her one but I don’t think it’ll be fair to the boys if she get’s something like this when they can’t have something as big for any of their birthday’s. And a lot of planning has to go into them but according to Rina, we’re already way behind schedule. I don’t want to spend a lot of money, but I also don’t want to half- it either.” Ivy explained.

“Well, if we explain to the boys what this all means, they will definitely be fine with it and we can always throw them something for future birthdays. Also, we have a lot of friends that will be willing to help us and you can save a lot of money with making things. Mariska is pretty crafty and Pinterest is her best friend. I say we should do it, for Mariska. And also for Naomi. I know how much you miss your friend and we don’t want Mariska to miss out on something so important. Tomorrow, when Jiho brings Mariska back, we’ll sit down and get a plan going. We’ll do research and everything. Now, let’s go to bed so we’re ready for this tomorrow.” Yoongi assured, helping Ivy stand up. Ivy smiled a grateful smile and thought how she got so lucky with a husband like Yoongi.

The next day, Ivy and Yoongi didn’t wake up till around noon but that was okay because that’s around the time that Mariska got back home.

“Mama! Dad! Nino is here!” Mariska called as she skipped into the house, followed by Woo Jiho, known as Zico in the music industry.

“Uncle Jiho!” All four boys went and attacked their uncle with hugs.

“Hey guys, how you doing?” Jiho greeted them all with a smile.

“Oh good, you’re both here. Are you two hungry?” Ivy asked as she prepared a late breakfast—basically lunch—for the rest of the family.

“We’re fine, noona. We ate after church.” Jiho politely declined.

“Mama, can we talk to dad now about the Quinceañera? Me and uncle did a lot of research while we ate and I think if we get some help, we can do two years worth of work all in one year. And I know you always want to save money and Quinces can get pretty pricey but we can probably save a lot of money if we do the decorations and stuff by hand. The dress and venue will probably be the most pricey though. We also did some research before church and when it was over, we talked to the Father and explained the church process of it and he said he would love to do it.” Mariska rambled, only stopping when Taehyung put a hand over .

“Mariska, you’re going to pass out.” Taehyung told her with a very serious expression.

“Eomma, what’s a quin, quin…whatever she said, what is it?” Jungkook asked the question that was on all the boys minds.

Ivy smiled as she placed the last dish down. “Sit down and when your appa comes down, we’ll discuss everything.” Ivy reassured them. Mariska and Jiho also sat with them but Mariska seemed to be buzzing. All the research had gotten her hyped up for the planning process and the party in general.

Yoongi came down and as soon as Mariska saw him, she was flying out of her chair and into her father’s arms.

“Dad! Dad! Dad! Did mama tell you? Did she? Did she? Did she?” Mariska quickly asked.

“Aish, it’s too early for this.” Yoongi muttered to himself. “If you sit down and let me sit down, your eomma and I can discuss everything with you.” Yoongi said with an even tone. Mariska quickly ran back to her seat—not without slipping in her socks, mind you—and sat down. She stared at her parents with a wide grin.

“What’s so exciting that has Mariska looking like that?” Jimin wondered, eyeing his sister cautiously.

“Well, boys. As you all know, Mariska’s biological mom was Latina, meaning that Mariska is also Latina and as part of their heritage, they throw a big party for the girls when they turn 15, as a sign of her leaving childhood and becoming a woman.” Ivy explained. “And Rina really wants us to have something for Mariska when she turns 15 which is basically in a year.” Ivy added on.

“So, we decided that we will do this for Mariska because it’s so important to her heritage and we still want her to remember where she came from.” Yoongi said, wishing he had braced his poor ears for Mariska’s high pitched squeal that could rival a teapot’s.

“REALLY?! AHHHH! THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!! Ohmygosh! There’s so much we need to do! AH! Mama, I found a 12-month step-by-step list for planning a quince. We stopped by at the library after brunch to print it out.” Mariska got a folded paper out from her dress pocket and handed it to Ivy who only sighed, knowing how stressful everything was going to be. But the idea that Naomi was smiling down at her seeing that her daughter was getting her quince, helped her push away the building up anxiety and stress.

12 months

One of the first things on the list was to find the godparents. Obviously, their first choice was Jiho since he was also Mariska’s godfather from her First Communion. Ivy and Yoongi wanted to do a traditional Quinceañera, including the special mass that is given for the Quince girl and one of the jobs of the godparents for the Quinceañera was to gift her with blessed gifts and to give the lectures. The main role they had though was to help the Quince girl stay on their spiritual path and since Jiho was the only Catholic friend that they had, he was their first and only choice. Jiho accepted with no hesitance, happy to be part of another important event in his goddaughter’s life. Mariska also wanted to make her uncles Jin, Hoseok, and Namjoon her godfather’s since they were always there for her so after some figuring out, they made them the unofficial godfathers and even though they weren’t Catholic, they would help her become a positive contributor to the community just as Jiho would.

The next thing they had to do was plan the number of guests. They not only had to account for their friends in Korea who were like family, but their actual families that would want to attend this event and also Mariska’s biological family as well. The date was no problem since Yoongi, Ivy, and Mariska came to an agreement to do it during the kids’ summer break now they just had to find a venue that was free during then and how their loved ones’ schedules were. Since they were planning so far ahead, it was easy for majority of their family to plan around the Quinceañera and the set date. Yoongi, Ivy, and Mariska spent two whole weekends searching for a nice venue and couldn’t be anymore ecstatic when they found one with the needed space along with a good sized dance floor and a stage that they could utilize. They didn’t even have to worry about a DJ since one of Mariska’s biological uncles was a DJ and told them that he would play at her party, free of charge, as his gift to her.

The theme had been very easy for Mariska. She didn’t have a specific theme in mind except that she wanted it to represent her and that meant girly and glam which meant pink and glitter and bling. Blush if we’re getting specific about the pink. Yoongi and Ivy were glad that their daughter wasn’t super picky since they had seen some episodes of Quiero Mis Quince—a show about girls planning their Quinceañeras—on Youtube and a lot of the girls on there had been equivalent to Bridezillas. Thankfully, Mariska had been very easy going.

12-11 months before the Quinceañera weren’t so hectic and Yoongi and Ivy hoped it was like that the rest of the year leading up to the day of the Quinceañera. So far, things were still sane in the Jung-Min house.