.

Dinner was a great success. Tao's mom cooked them a 5 of his favorite dishes with the help of Kris, who insisted in assisting. Worried the he might say something weird to his mom, Tao helped too. Plus it been a while since he helped his mom in the kitchen. While his dad made them dessert, tofu fa (tofu pudding with rock sugar and ginger syrup), Ren's favorite. Dad noticed didi was pouty while dinner was being prepared.

"You got some here." Kris got a napkin and wiped some pudding off the corner of Tao's lip.

"Thanks," Tao said shyly, face feeling a bit warm. Then he noticed the rest of his family was staring at them.

His mom smiled fondly at them. "Aw, Kris is so sweet. Your girlfriend must be so lucky."

Kris glanced at Tao for a second then looked back at Tao's mom. "I don't have a girlfriend."

"Oh, really?" She beamed. "'Cuz Tao has a cousin about your age, and..."

Ren budded in. "And they say she and Tao look-alike, but she's way prettier. And she's way smarter."

Mom continued. "Her name's Jia. She's also studying fashion design. I think you two would have alot in common."

"Thanks Auntie May, but I already have someone I like," Kris told her. While Tao was sitting beside him sweating it.

"Oh, I see." She smiled undestandingly. "Then forget I said anything," she said, going back to her tofu fa.

"So, Tao how is training going." Tao's dad finally spoke after a long time, it seemed.

"I, um, doing fine," Tao answered calmly as his could. Inside he was nervous as hell.

"When is your big debut?" Ren asked his big bro. "You've already trained for like 2 years, right?"

"I, um, I'm not really sure." Tao looked down at his bowl, unconsciously stirring the tofu fa around with his spoon so no one could tell his hand was shaking a bit.

"I heard some have trained 8 years before debuting," Tao's mom said.

"How'd you know that mom?" Ren asked.

"I've done my research. But Honey, don't worry." She reached over and patted Tao's one hand that was gripping the edge of the dinning table. "Your time will come. Just keep working hard. Jiayou!" ('Jiayou' means to 'do your best!')

"Yes, work hard son," his dad said. "But don't forget to call us once in a while. Your mom now gets all hopeful and excited whenever the phone rings. Then she gets mopey when she doesn't hear from you for a too long. Even just a 'hi' would be nice."

Tao's mom nodded.

"Sorry, mom and dad. I promise I'll call more often," Tao said, wholeheartedly, almost wanting to cry (again), but he swallowed it down.

"Okay," his mom said, smiling warmly and petting his son's cheek.

After dessert and cleaning up was done it was already 10. "We don't have a guest room but we do have a fold out sofa bed. I hope you don't mind, Kris."

"Sorry, Auntie May, we actually can't stay the night. I just found out I have to be back in Korea for a meeting tommorrow morning," Kris said (he got a text earlier, which will remain a mystery for now).

"So soon?" Aunty May looked a bit sad. "I was hoping Tao could at least stay till the 2nd."

"The 2nd is ah-ge's 19th birthday," Ren told 'em.

"Seem so long since we celebrated your birthday together too." Tao's mom held his eldest son's hand.

Kris looked at Tao, who seemed a bit sad too. "Well, if I push the meeting we could..."

"No," Tao suddenly spoke up, "no, it's okay." He turned to his mom. "Sorry mama, maybe next year we could?"

It only took one look of Tao's puppy dog eyes to melt his mom's heart. "I understand." She hugged his son.

After some other farewells and hugs (or handshakes in Kris' case) between the rest of Tao's family they were already on their way to go.

At this moment Aunty May pulled Kris to the side. "Kris, take good care of Tao for me, okay?" she told him quietly.

Kris exchanged a look with Tao's mom, which spoke something, and he smiled. "Of course, Aunty May. I will, I promise."

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Author's Note
I like to imagine that Tao's mom has actually say those kinds of words to Kris before ^_^ But, back to the story... this is the last part of "Hello, Family!" Not next time, but coming soon would be Tao's surprise bday and a later surprise guest(s). So stay tune and hopefully I don't take forever to update again (although, I do have a big project coming up at work) but I'll try my best. FYI: that cousin Jia is Miss A's Jia 'cuz I think she looks like the female version of Tao ^^

Fun Poll Time...

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