Chaeyoung should’ve seen this coming. She should’ve been more prudent.

It was only a matter of time before her parents found out she was dating, and yet, she was naive enough to think she could stall the topic. She didn’t intend to hide it from them forever, she was just hoping it would happen later in life, at least until she was independent from them, geographically and financially. That way, if things turn sour, they won’t hold anything against her, and she’ll have somewhere to run to. That’s not to say her parents are conservative pricks, no, absolutely not. They’re just..a tad bit old fashioned in their thinking and it’s always a hassle to reason with them, and dating is one of the particular subjects that they don’t take lightly, so how did she exactly let this happen?

It was a warm Tuesday afternoon, and Chaeyoung was back home in Seoul for spring break. She was laying on the couch after they just had lunch, reading a book, when she heard her phone ding with a notification somewhere in the living room, but she paid it no mind, until her mom’s voice came in.

“Chaeyoung-ah.”

“Hm?”

“Who’s this Jungkookie and why is he asking you to come to his place?”

Chaeyoung’s entire body stiffened, her book falling from her hands. “He’s uh a friend.” but her mother wasn’t impressed.

“Do you put hearts in front of your friends’ contact names?”

“uh, yes?”

Another notification. Her mom stared at her phone and her expression hardened.

“He calls you baby.”

Busted.

So here she is now, squirming in her seat uncomfortably, with her parents sitting across from her, their faces the epitome of disapproval.

“How long?” her mom does not beat around the bush.

Chaeyoung tries to keep her cool but fails. “Two years.” she pauses. “And four months.”

Her mother raises her brows in shock while her father huffs loudly. “Unbelievable.” he mutters as he shakes his head. “We sent her to university to study, and all this time she was playing around with a boy!”

Chaeyoung pretends it doesn’t sting to hear that. She takes a deep breath. “I’m doing my best at Uni and I’m getting good grades. I’m not playing around.”

Her father scowls. “Dating is only gonna distract you from your studies.”

“It didn’t and it won’t.” She retorts.

Her mother steps in, twisted in a frown. “So, you’re serious about this boy.”

Her answer comes automatically. “Yes.”

“What’s his name? How old is he? What does he do? Is he serious about you?”

“His name is Jungkook, he’s the same age as me and he works as a game developer. And yes, he is serious about me too.” She mutters the last part hesitantly and hopes her parents don’t notice.

“A gamer!” her dad exclaims in disbelief and Chaeyoung doesn’t bother correcting him. “You couldn’t even find someone with a respectable job!”

Chaeyoung holds herself back from talking back, her hands curling into fists against her lap.

Her mother doesn’t say anything for a while, her face a blank sheet, and Chaeyoung could tell that she’s lost deep in thought. After a minute however, her mother clasps her hands together and looks pointedly at her. “If it’s that serious then I think we should meet him.”

Chaeyoung blinks at her. “What?”

“Of course, we’re very much mad that you hid this from us and it’s only fair that we get to know this boy that you’ve been seeing for two years.” She smiles rigidly. “And four months.” Chayeoung gulps. “Tell him to come over tomorrow evening for dinner.”

“But!” Chaeyoung interjects. “what if he’s busy?”

Her mother’s smile doesn’t falter. “Surely, he can make time for us tomorrow. Afterall, he is serious about you, right?”

Chaeyoung nods slowly. Her mother can be eerily scary.

“Good.” her mother hands Chaeyoung her phone. “Call him now.”

Chaeyoung stares at her quizzically “W-what?”

“You heard me.” her mother certainly does not love repeating herself.

“But he’s probably still at work, I can just call him later.”

“If he’s that serious about you, he will answer.” her mom gives her a pointed look before she adds. “And put it on speaker.”

Chaeyoung is two nanoseconds away from losing her mind.

Begrudgingly, she calls his number, presses the speaker button and prays to the seven skies he doesn’t answer, but of course that doesn’t happen.

“Hey baby, I’m on my way to a meeting right now, can I call you later?” Jungkook answers frantically, his tone indicating that he’s walking as he’s talking. Chaeyoung looks alarmingly at her parents, who are internally fuming at the usage of the pet name.

She’s about to tell him sure he can call her later, but one look at her parents is enough to convince her not to. “I-uh, I mean- it’s uh-” she stutters, not sure how to breach the topic.

Jungkook suddenly moves to an area with less background noise. “You don’t sound well, are you alright? what’s wrong?” His voice turns gentle as if he can sense her discomfort and a sudden burst of affection spreads through her.

“I’m fine.” she reassures him, holding back a smile, lest she wants to be on the receiving end of her parents’ deadly glares. “I just wanted to ask if you’re free tomorrow evening? say, like at 7 pm?”

“I was planning on working overtime actually, but if you need me then nothing else matters anymore.”

This time, she lets herself smile. Screw him for being so freaking sweet. “My parents want to meet you. They want you to have dinner with us tomorrow, is that okay?”

He’s silent for a couple of seconds before he says. “I thought your parents didn’t know about us?”

“Yeah..they uh, they found out, so..”

“Ah. That explains why you sound nervous.” he hums knowingly. “I’m guessing they didn’t take it well.”

Not taking it well would be putting it mildly.

“So it’s gonna be one of those ‘You’re not good enough for our daughter’ kind of meetings.” he chuckles. “Hopefully they don’t try to bribe me to stay away from you.”

She doesn’t dare look at her parents’ face. She fakes a laugh. “Yeah, so you’re coming?”

“Of course I’m coming. I’d love to meet them.”

“Ok cool, so I’ll see you tomorrow then.” She hangs up before he could say anything more that can cause more damage.

Tomorrow’s going to be one giant disaster.

-----------------------------------

Chaeyoung is anxiously pacing around the small living room, going around their old grey couch in circles over and over that she’s starting to get dizzy.

Jungkook is gonna be here any second and she’s still in her Minnie mouse pajamas. Honest to god she doesn’t really want to change and she probably won’t, seeing how she’s too nervous to pay mind to anything right now. Her mother’s in the kitchen, finishing up the kimchi salad while her dad’s watching TV, or rather, abusing the remote control by constantly changing channels every two seconds as if nothing is worth his attention. It’s insane how calm her parents seem on the outside when she feels two seconds away from exploding, her stomach churning uncontrollably.

Just then, the doorbell rings and Chaeyoung jumps to the door. She opens it to find Jungkook smiling at her, a brown pastry box in his hand. He’s wearing an oversized red hoodie that covers half his body, coupled with dark jeans and a pair of white doc martens; it’s exactly his casual everyday style that she loves, and she’s so happy he didn’t change it for today.

“Hey gorgeous.” he greets her with a one-armed hug and drops a kiss to her lips.

“Jungkook!” she whisper-shouts, flushing profusely. “My parents could be watching!”

“I know.” he winks. “I want them to see.”

He’s totally doing this on purpose. And she’s kind of into it.

No wait. She shakes her head. Her parents are not gonna like that. She breaks away from him and leads him into the house.

“Mom! dad! Jungkook’s here!” She turns around after closing the door to find her parents standing in front of them, wearing their best fake polite smiles. God, it’s so scary to look at.

Jungkook bows with an amiable smile. “Nice to meet you Mister and Misses Park. I’m Jeon Jungkook, Chaeyoung’s boyfriend.”

She could see her dad’s eye slightly twitch hearing the word ‘boyfriend’ but he quickly recovers, widening his creepy smile.

“I brought with me a little something. I hope it’s to your liking.” Jungkook hands her mom the pastry box and she accepts it with an impressed look.

“Oh you didn’t have to, but thank you. Please, come in.” Her mother guides them all to the dining room where the table has already been set, and they all take their seats, her parents on one side, her and Jungkook on the other.

The table is filled to the brim with food: There’s roast chicken, baked French fries, two plates of kimbap, kimchi salad, cucumber salad, fried rice, bibim mandu, and 6 bottles of soju. Chaeyoung smiles to herself. Despite her initial dislike for Jungkook, her mom still went out of her way to make all of these dishes.

“Woah, this is a marvelous meal Mrs. Park. You shouldn’t have burdened yourself.” Jungkook comments, earning another impressed look from her mom. He is a lot better at dealing with parents than Chaeyoung thought.

“It's the least I could do. Please dig in.” as if on cue, everyone grabs their forks and starts filling their plates.

“So, Jungkook.” her dad starts, cutting through the chicken wing on his plate and Chaeyoung braces herself for the worst. “I heard you work as a gamer. How is that working out for you?”

And there it is, the true face of her father. All those smiles and niceties are gone in a flash as he icely glances at Jungkook.

Jungkook however, doesn’t rattle. “I work as a game developer actually, not a gamer.”

“Oh what's the difference.” her dad says mockingly, a devilish grin on his face. Chaeyoung winces internally and sneaks a peek at Jungkook who, by some divine power, is actually smiling.

“The difference is right there in the name. Not that hard to understand it actually.” comes Jungkook’s witty reply.

Chaeyoung curls her fingers tightly around her fork.

He is purposely provoking her parents. He’s not playing nice. This is not good.

Before her father could fire back, her mother interjects. “You said you’re the same age as our Chaeyoung but you’re already working.” She cuts a boiled potato in half and takes a bite. “Does that mean you never went to University?”

Chaeyoung almost drops her fork this time. Her mother is not any better at being subtle. Jesus, it’s one attack after the other!

Jungkook opens a bottle of soju and pours a glass for Mr. Park and another for Mrs. Park. “It means,” he puts the bottle down. “I finished University early.” he smiles and adds. “Graduated at 18.”

Her mother’s smile suddenly falls and she looks down at her plate, eyeing the other half of her boiled potato.

“That’s wonderful.” her mother comments, regaining her composure. “I bet your parents are very proud of you.”

“They are.”

“What do they do?”

“My dad’s a postal worker and my mom’s a housewife.”

Her father’s eyes glint darkly. “That’s unfortunate.” he huffs. “To have a jobless mother and a father with a low-class profession.”

Jungkook’s expression hardens. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Her father throws him a challenging look. “Well, I just thought it must’ve been hard for your parents to live like that, that’s all.”

Chaeyoung holds his hand under the table and squeezes it, trying to comfort him. He squeezes her hand back, telling her that he’s okay, he can handle it.

“Is there something wrong with being a housewife or a postal worker?” he counters.

“I didn’t say there was something wrong with it,” her dad defends, downing a shot of soju in one go. “I just think it’s a waste that your mom is not out there working, you know, I’m all for women empowerment, I think women should be able to make their own deliberate choices without being controled and that they shouldn’t be restricted to house work.”

Not her father trying to seem woke. Chaeyoung wants to gag, and also maybe slap her father into sanity because what the actual hell is he saying? He throws a tantrum over her dating and now he says women should be free to lead their life? and her mother is literally a housewife too, does he not realize that?

And like a brainless buffoon, her dad continues digging his own grave. “As for your father’s job, well, frankly, it’s not really much of a gain, is it?”

Jungkook squeezes Chaeyoung’s hand real tight. “Both my parents love what they do and I think that’s all that matters, but it seems to me, Mr. Park, that you’ve never experienced that so instead of giving value to your job, you look down on others. And honestly, I feel very sorry for you.”

The whole table is stunned into silence. Her mother stares into the distance, her face unreadable while her father looks like he just got an ice bucket thrown at him, with his eyes wide and mouth slightly ajar.

Jungkook gently pries Chaeyoung’s hand away and gets up. “If you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna go get some fresh air.” he says before he gets out of the front door.

Silence continues to roam the brightly lit dinner room, until her father breaks it. “Well that boy sure has some nerve talking to me like that.” he puffs his cheeks haughtily, and that’s when Chaeyoung finally breaks.

“Are you serious?” she snaps at her father, who glares at her to shut up and on any other day, she would’ve kept quiet, but not today. Not after they insulted her boyfriend and his family. “He’s the one with the nerve?? maybe if you didn’t insult his family, he wouldn’t have said what he said, which by the way, is true and you know it!” she spits harshly, looking between her parents.

“Young lady, you do not talk to us like that, you will respect-”

“Respect??” she shouts, letting out a bitter chuckle. “Do you even know what that word means? because I’ve never ever gotten that from you!” she takes a deep breath, feeling herself shaking a bit.

“Park Chaeyoung, you will shut up right now or-”

“No, I will not.” she interjects sharply, staring down at her mother. “All my life, all I did was shut up! All I did was listen to you controlling my life and take away my freedom of speech and it’s so exhausting! It's so exhausting being your daughter. But I could deal with that, I could handle all the pressure you put on me, it’s all I’ve ever known so I’m used to it. BUT,-” she raises her voice, every word laced with unbridled contempt. “You had no right to talk bad about Jungkook and his family like that. You had no right to behave like you did tonight and then put the blame on him! From the moment he came in, all you did was pick on him and try to humiliate him in every possible way! all of this just because he’s dating me! in what world does that make sense??”

Her mother rubs her forehead tiredly. “You know we’re doing this for you, you should be grateful. We just wanted to make sure he wasn’t just playing with you.”

“No, that’s not what this is about. You guys wanted to push him away from me because I’m the one who chose him. You don’t like that I’m living my life according to me because you want to keep having leverage over my life, you want to pick the perfect guy for me and watch me build a family with him, you want me to be your version of a perfect daughter but I’m not and I never will be!” she stands up, slamming her palms on the table. “You have to understand that this is my life, I’m the only one in charge of it. I get to choose who to date, and I chose him, and I love him dearly and you don’t get a say in that. You just have to accept that and move on.”

Her mother crosses her arms, narrowing her eyes at her. “And when he breaks your heart, then what? you’re gonna come crying to us? You’re young, Chaeyoung, you know nothing of this world. Boys your age don’t want a serious relationship, they just want to screw around! We’re trying to protect you.”

“But what you’re doing is not protection, it’s just a takeover.” she sighs bitterly. “You keep telling me how the world is merciless so I should always be responsible and careful but how can I learn to live in this world if I don’t experience its cruelty first-hand?” She looks down at the table with a frown, fatigue washing over her. “I’ve been heartbroken before, I know what it feels like, I know it and how damaging to your self-esteem it is. But I also know that, if things don’t work out with Jungkook eventually, I wouldn’t mind him breaking my heart, because he’s worth it. Because I love him and when you love people, you let them shatter you.” She raises her head confidently and looks at her mom. “I love him and I will continue dating him even if you threaten to kick me out of this house. That’s all I wanted to say.” she says in one breath before she leaves the house.

The crispy cold air hits her right in the face and she instantly shivers. She didn’t expect it to be this cold at night, and she’s tempted to go back and grab a jacket but no way in hell is she setting a foot in her house. She looks over the driveway and spots Jungkook leaning on the passenger side of his car, his fingers drumming the roof of his car as he’s checking his phone, so she makes her way to him.

“I’m surprised you haven’t left.” she says once she’s near him, rubbing her forearms to warm herself up. Jungkook pockets his phone and pulls her to his chest, wrapping his arms tightly around her waist. She presses her face to his chest, her hands clutching the back of his shirt tightly. It doesn’t do much to warm her up, but the proximity is enough to make her feel calm and secure again.

“I thought of it.” he confesses. “But I missed you and I wanted to see more of you before Uni steals you away from me again.”

For the first time that night, she smiles. “Cheesy.” she comments.

“You know me.”

“I’m sorry about my parents.” she mutters gravely.

He kisses the top of her head. “That’s okay. You already told me about them, so I came prepared for their attacks.”

“If it makes you feel any better, I defended your honor.” she mutters to lighten up the mood and it works.

Jungkook chuckles. “I’m sure you did, baby.”

“Arguing with them is so stressful, I’m impressed you didn’t pull out a cigarette yet.” she remarks. “Even I want to smoke after whatever that was.”

“Trust me, I want nothing more than to smoke right now, but I promised you to quit, so I guess you could say..” he pauses for effect. “This is me trying.”

Chaeyoung snorts. “I can’t believe you. Even at a time like this, you still manage to drop a Taylor Swift reference.”

“I can’t help it.” he laughs. “My mind is literally filled with all her songs. And you, of course.”

“Great, so I’m just an afterthought.” she jokingly replies, poking his side.

“Come on, you know you’re not.” he tilts his head to look at her face, his bunny smile on display and it’s hard not to melt at the sight.

She knows how much Jungkook loves her, but her mother’s question drilled so many doubts in her last night that she had a tough time sleeping: “Is he serious about you?”

It’s crazy how one simple question can upturn your tranquility. Yes, Jungkook loves and treasures her, she knows this because she feels it every time she’s around him. He’s always so gentle and caring, but will things remain like this forever? sure he’s serious about her now but what about tomorrow, and the day after, and the month after, and the years after? She has full confidence that she’ll be there with him at every step, but what about him? Will he stay?

“Chaeyoung?” His concerned voice wakes her up from her dreadful thought. She shakes her head with a forced smile.

“It’s nothing.”

“No, there's something. Tell me.”

She pulls back a bit, staring at the ground. “You’re serious about me, right? I know this is a stupid question, but mom asked me this and it got me thinking about our relationship which led me to think about the future and if, you know, you’ll still be there beside me or will you get bored of me and we’ll eventually part ways, which by the way, I don’t mind you know! I’ll be honored to get my heart broken by you. It’s just, I want you in my future, so I kept wondering if you want me to and it’s just-” she groans and hugs herself. “It’s so stupid, I’m sorry.”

A soft breeze passes by them, carrying an uncomfortable silence that Jungkook easily breaks. “I have a lot of your stuff at my place.”

“What-”

“Your clothes, your shampoo, your conditioner, your soap, your perfume, your birth control pills, your pads and tampons, your face masks, your favorite bath bombs, your colored pens, your hair ties, your makeup products and so many other things that belong to you.” he smiles and holds both her hands gently. “So, I bought a new drawer to keep all of it, waiting for the day you graduate and find a job here so you can move in with me. I have your picture as my lock screen because it’s the first thing I want to see when I wake up. Yoongi-hyung hates me for always talking about how much I miss you at work. When I’m happy I listen to Taylor Swift and think of you, when I’m sad I listen to Taylor Swift and think of you. Sometimes I walk past the coffee shop where we first met and get butterflies. Yeah, I’m that whipped. And when I go back home for Chuseok, my mom accidentally saves a seat for you at the table because she thinks of you as family.” He pulls her closer. “You see where I’m going with this?”

Chaeyoung looks up at him, eyes watery because how can she not cry?

She loves him. She loves him too much for words.

“You can’t get rid of me that easily.” he boops her nose. “I’m here for the long run baby.”

She leans forward and presses herself onto his chest again, her hands still intertwined with his. “And you’re stuck with me for evermore.”

He chuckles. “Now who’s dropping Taylor Swift references?”

She remains quiet, then says. “Jungkook.”

“hm?”

“Let’s go home.”

“You sure? Your parents are gonna be mad.”

"I don’t care.” she replies and it’s all the confirmation he needs before he drives them to his place, because to her, that’s her real home.

Being with him is her real home.