yuna - 5 months

ryujin - 7 years

yeji - 9 years

dahyun - 24 years

mina - 25 years

jeongyeon - 47

nayeon - 49

"Babe, can you please just go pick up Yuna? She's about to start crying." Mina requested, not taking her eyes away from the various vegetables she was cutting up. She felt Dahyun place a kiss on the back of her neck before going to grab the baby laying on the floor. She held her up, pressing a kiss to her cheek before walking back over to Mina.

"Minari, I don't see why you're stressing so much over this dinner." Dahyun whined, bouncing Yuna in her arms gently, "Nayeon and Jeongyeon are going to love anything you make."

"I know but it's the first time they're going to be over just them."

"So?"

"I just want everything to be perfect." Mina sighed, placing her finally chopped vegetables in the pot of boiling water. She turned around and smiled at the two girls, Yuna had nuzzled her head into Dahyun's neck almost asleep as Dahyun patted the baby's back softly. "I just want to show them everything is going well."

"Well everything is, so don't worry about it," Dahyun assured, "Everything is completely under control and perfect."

Before Mina could get another word in, both of the sisters came barreling into the kitchen, Yeji holding Ryujin's dragon plush while the younger looked like she was about to burst into tears. "Give it back!"

"No, I'm using him!" Yeji held the stuffier closer to her chest as Ryujin made a lunge at her.

"Woah, woah, woah. Girls." Mina cut in, "What's going on!"

"Yeji kidnapped Yong!" Ryujin wailed, pointing a finger at her sister who looked outraged at the accusation.

"You weren't using him! So I just wanted to play with him for a little while!" The oldest defended, running around Mina's legs as Ryujin tried to run after her. Somehow Ryujin ended up running into Dahyun who in turn accidentally shook Yuna awake who woke up crying.

Ding Dong

The parents shot eachother a panicked look before Mina slowly approached the door, and opened it to see a smiling Nayeon and Jeongyeon standing there. Jeongyeon was holding a pie, and Nayeon a case of Gatorade, weird choices but it was fitting. "Hey."

"Hey Mi," Jeongyeon smiled, giving the girl a one armed hug before stepping into the house. Nayeon followed suit, frowning a the loud commotion coming from the kitchen. Mina wanted the ground to swallow her up whole.

"What's going on in here?" Nayeon asked, as she stepped into the kitchen, both the two sisters head snapping towards her. "Why are you two yelling?"

"She took my Yong!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Enough!" Nayeon cut in, holding out her hand, "See how about we compromise and no one gets it."
Hesitantly Yeji handed over the stuffie, and Nayeon placed it ontop of the fridge out of reach, out of sight, and out of mind. "Now come give me a hug!"

The two mothers watched in shook at how easily Nayeon controlled the situation, mouths hanging open. Jeongyeon chuckled, "The twins used to act like them when they were little."
The girls didn't even seem mad, wrapping Nayeon up in a tight hug as they started to fill her in on their lives since the last time they saw them. Jeongyeon looked a bit shy, before pointing at Yuna, "Can I hold her?"

"Oh yeah, of course." Dahyun handed the baby over, who at first looked a bit confused as to why some random lady was holding her but she calmed down and started to grip onto her shirt, blabbing happily.

"Let's eat."

...

They settled at the table a little while later, pulling over two extra chairs for Nayeon and Jeongyeon. Mina (with the help of Dahyun) had prepared Jajamyeon, a favorite of the family. Ryujin and Yeji seemed like the most excited to have the older couple over, they barely ate with how much they were talking.

"Then, I threw the ball really hard and the other girl missed. So we won!" Yeji relayed her game from yesterday, "And Mom was so excited that she brought us and some of my friends to get chicken afterwards."

The older couple smiled, listening to Yeji talk. It was strange, Yeji didn't usually open up this much to anyone outside of their small family, but she seemed to have little reservations when it came to Nayeon. Maybe it was the day they got ice cream. Ryujin also spoke up, "Mommy bought me Yong when I got a perfect score on my exam! You saw him earlier, he's so cute."

"You got a perfect score?" Nayeon asked, a smile on her lips as she brought a bit more food to her lips.

Ryujin nodded, "Yup, Me and Mommy," She pointed at Mina quickly, "Sat at the table for a few hours and went over all the stuff, and I got a good score."

"That's awesome!" Jeongyeon cheered, turning to Dahyun and Mina, "How are you two doing?"

"We're doing good, the restaurant is doing really well and Mina just got a promotion at work." Dahyun answered, "And the girls are doing good, so everything is good."

"How do you all know eachother?" Ryujin asked, looking around confusedly, "You're not like Grammie Wendy or Grandma Joohyun. So how?"

"Um- they used to take care of me when I was younger." Mina answered, "Just like how I take care of you."

"So they're your Moms?"

"No..Kinda..Grammie is my mom. I just know them. I didn't talk to them for a while, but now we are getting to know eachother again."

"Why didn't you talk to them?"

The older couple's eyes both bore into Mina, seemingly asking the same question. Nayeon spoke up, "Yeah, Why?"

"Sunmi told me you guys were close to getting me back." Mina spoke quietly, eyes firmly planted on the food on her plate she was picking at, "Then you guys just decided to stop it all one day. It felt like Taeyeon and Tiffany all over again, like you didn't want me. It just hurt too much to call you, or come over for dinner when you didn't want me. And I didn't know what I did to make you stop so suddenly."
The table went silent, everyone looking over at Mina made her best attempt to sneakily wipe a tear away, "Let's just stop talking about this and eat. Please."

Slowly, everyone resumed their meals. Dahyun attempted to make small talk with Jeongyeon, asking her about how work was and now that she was empty nesting. But the table had an awkward air to it, Nayeon just picked at her food and it was obvious that the kids were feeling the tension as well, Ryujin had practically glued herself to Nayeon's side, and Yeji reached under the table to hold Mina's hand.

"We wanted you."
All heads snapped in Nayeon's direction who put her silverware down abruptly and looked across the table at Mina with such an intensity in her eyes, "We did, so don't you ever think you did something. We saw how you bonded with Wendy, how she had the time and resources for you to be her main priority. And she made you happy, we couldn't just uproot you like that again. We wanted you so bad, I cried the entire night when we decided to let Wendy keep you. We lived together about the same amount of time that you and Wendy lived together, yet you never called me Mom, but you called her. You were bounced around for so long, we couldn't do that to you again."

Nayeon was always blessed with the ability to read her children. She knew exactly when Momo lied to her about eating the last cookie, when Sana was feeling overworked and needed a break, or when Tzuyu was uncomfortable. It had always been like that. Mina fell into that category as well. Ever since she met the teenager, she could tell she was hungry but too afraid to ask for food, she could tell when she was scared when she thought they were mad at her, she could tell how conflicted she felt when her and Dahyun first started talking. But those went away with time, Mina grew up and those feelings faded.

Her insecurity hadn't however. Nayeon could see it in the way she kept placing food on the kids spoons, concerned that they weren't eating enough, that they were going hungry just like she had for so long. She could see it in how she carried Yuna like she would shatter at any second, afraid that she would somehow hurt the baby. She had seen it growing up, how Mina was elated at any sort of praise when she did something good. Mina was just an insecure person, and the world had made her into that. It wasn't exactly hard to see why, time and time again she had been abandoned, neglected, abused, and told it was her fault. And unknowingly, Nayeon had fed into that security.

One time when Mina had crawled into their bed late at night, whining about how she didn't feel good and that Dahyun had gotten her sick, she once said that her greatest fear was being alone. And it was clear to see it still was.

So Nayeon just offered her a small smile, reached across the table and grabbed her hand, rubbing her fingers comfortingly across Mina's, playing with her wedding ring. "Don't think we didn't want you."

"But-"

"Mina, I'm serious." There was something final in Nayeon's tone, that Mina shouldn't try to find a way to see if this was a lie. The girl nodded, tightening her grip on Nayeon's hand before slowly pulling away.

"Okay. Thank you."

.

They left a few hours later, the night transforming into loud laughter, and board games as they reconnected. When they finally decided it was late and the girls needed to sleep, they hugged goodbye and left. Leaving Dahyun to out down Yuna and Ryujin and Mina to do the dishes.

There really wasn't much, just a few pans and plates. Even so, she heard a chair be dragged next to her, and Yeji climbing up,"Can I help?"

"Sure," Mina passed her the drying rag on her shoulder handing her the freshly washed glass. The two worked in peace before Yeji decided to say something.

"You know Ryujin, Yuna, and I want you, right?"

"Huh?"

"I don't want to go back with my mom. I want to stay here with you." Yeji didn't look at her and just kept drying down dishes, "I'm sorry I yell at you, or make you feel bad. Don't tell Mom, but you're my favorite."

Mina chuckled at that, "Why are you saying this?"

"Because I don't want you to think we don't want you. I love you."

"I love you too Yeji."