Hi everyone!  I don't know who's even still reading this story, but I came across it looking for a presentation and felt a surge of writing inspiration again.  Thank you to anyone who's still here for the ride, and hopefully this burst lasts me to the end of what I had planned for these kids!  xoxo, phaedra

CH18

Chen woke up to a gentle but insistent hand shaking his shoulder. He groaned in protest, groggily opening his eyes. The living room slowly came into focus, dimly lit by the home menu of a DVD from the television. He stared in confusion at the dinosaurs running across the screen, wondering why he’d been watching an ancient movie like Jurassic Park – until the blanket in front of him suddenly shifted, and Chen remembered he’d been having a date with his girlfriend.

Sena was fast asleep next to him, using his arm as a pillow, her nose buried in his shirt and the rest of her buried under the throw blanket.

“Chen.”

Chen jerked, and looked over his shoulder. His father stood behind the sofa, staring down at the two of them with a raised brow. Chen stiffened, his arm tightening unconsciously around Sena.

Seunghoon cleared his throat, shoving his hands into his pockets. “Is this your girlfriend?”

“Yeah,” Chen said tersely, though his voice was still scratchy with sleep.

His father nodded. “It’s almost 9pm. You should probably take her home.”

Chen froze, and then turned his head to the clock on the wall. 8:49. “Oh, ,” he hissed. Sena had said she had to be home by eight, since she had wanted to work on her art piece. He hoped her parents weren’t sticklers for curfews.

“Here.” A set of keys appeared before Chen’s face. “Take the car.” Seunghoon paused for a beat, almost nervously. “Tell your girlfriend to come around for dinner sometime. If you’re okay with it, that is,” he added quickly, raising a placating hand.

Yeah, right. Making his girlfriend suffer through an awkward dinner with his dad sounded like a break-up waiting to happen. Although, his girlfriend would probably charm the socks off his dad with her intellect and art interests, and Chen would be left playing third wheel. Which, considering the string of barely-legal girls his father had been seeing recently, didn’t make Chen feel very secure. “It’s too soon for that,” he replied bluntly.

“Oh, sure, of course,” his father replied, shifting his gaze. “Well, I’m going to my office. Call me if you need me.”

And with that, the elder Kim walked out, and Chen breathed a sigh of relief, grateful that Sena hadn’t woken up and seen his father. He knew he was probably overthinking the whole situation, but with everything he’d told her about Kim Seunghoon, he figured he owed her some time to prepare instead of blindsiding her by having her wake up to his dad hovering over them.

They’d gone to his house after coffee, whereupon Sena had forced him to sit down with her and finish their homework before doing anything else. He’d grumbled the whole way, but a few breaks with Sena’s creative mouth got him through. Afterwards, she’d sifted through his DVD collection while he whipped them up some snacks, surprising him with her enthusiastic choice of Jurassic Park. It had been one of his favorite movies growing up, and apparently hers too, with the way she quoted lines and facts at him for half the movie. Eventually, Chen had managed to divert her attention, pulling her into his arms for spells of conversation broken by languid kisses until they’d both fallen asleep.

“Sena. Hey, wake up,” he coaxed gently, combing her hair back from her face. She blinked sleepily a few times, and then yawned in his face. He chuckled, and she quickly covered .

“Sorry,” she mumbled.

“Mmm, evening breath,” he teased lightly.

Her eyes popped open, cheeks flooding with pink. She turned away quickly, hiding her face in the sofa cushions.

"I'm kidding, I swear I’m kidding,” he coaxed with a chuckle, edging closer and wrapping his arms around her. She shook her head furiously, sitting up and reaching out with a frantic hand for her bag. Chen levered himself up, trying to see what she was searching for. When he saw the pack of gum in her hand, he nearly collapsed from laughter.

“I was seriously kidding,” he huffed in between breaths. But she mutinously dug out two pieces and chewed them violently in front of him, her face so unhappy that he couldn’t help but drag her down to cuddle.

“You’re so mean,” she groused, fidgeting in his arms.

“I’d offer to kiss it better, but unfortunately it’s past midnight for you, Cinderella.”

She shot out of his arms with a panicked look. “It’s past midnight?!”

Chen shook his head quickly. “That was a joke too, but it is almost nine.”

“Oh, thank god.” She took a deep breath, her shoulders relaxing.

He curled his lip at her obvious relief. “I’m going to pretend to not be offended that you’re happy you didn’t spend more time with me.”

Sena rolled her eyes at him. “Don’t be a brat. I just gave you an awesome date.” She flicked her hair over her shoulder with a smirk.

His heart fluttered. Actually fluttered, like some cheesy anime moment. Oh, he was such a er for her sass. “Awesome? We watched Jurassic Park and did homework.”

“Exactly,” she retorted, standing up and stretching. “Awe-some.”

Chen rolled to his feet too, scooping her bag from the floor. “Alright, come on, beautiful. Let’s get you home, and we can argue about awesome dates in the car.”

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

Sena waved one last time as Chen drove off, before turning around and heading inside.

“Did you eat dinner?” Her mother’s voice called out from the kitchen.

“Not yet,” she answered, toeing off her shoes and slipping into house slippers. “Let me just go change real quick.”

She padded up the stairs, fishing her phone out and sending Chen a quick thank-you text before she scrolled through the messages she’d missed during their nap. A few from Sunhwa, about a girl in their class cheating on her boyfriend, and one from Mijoo, one of her friends from Gwangdo, wanting to meet up for coffee.

And below that, another message.

‘Hey. Can we talk sometime today? About what happened yesterday?’

Chanyeol’s text.

The text she’d never answered.

“Oh, no,” she groaned guiltily, plopping onto her bed. She ran a hand through her hair, questioning if it was too late to respond now. But not responding at all would be just awful of her, especially since he’d reached out first. She decided to call him, hoping that he was still awake.

The tone picked up, ringing steadily in her ears.

And it kept ringing, until an automated female voice asked if she’d like to leave a message.

Sena bit her lip, disconnecting the call.

“Sena! Hurry up, your food’s getting cold!”

"One second, mom!” She shouted. Her finger hovered over the dial button as she debated calling again. And then the decision was out of her hands as the screen changed, announcing a call from Chanyeol himself. She nearly dropped her phone in surprise.

“Hello?”

“Hey.” Chanyeol’s voice, even and measured. There was no sign of the anger and frustration that had colored his words the other night, but still, she felt the need to be cautious.

“Hi. Sorry for calling so late.”

A slight rustle of sound came over the speaker. “No worries. I’m just out with the guys.”

“Oh, were you busy? We can talk later, if that works better.”

“No, no, now’s fine.”

“Okay.” Her mom appeared at the door with a frown, but Sena waved her off before she could say a word, gesturing to her phone. The older woman mom pursed her lips, but backed off quickly, shutting the door behind her as she left.

“So, about what happened,” Chanyeol began slowly.

“You don’t have to tell me, if you don’t want to,” she said, scuttling backwards to sit against her headboard. She felt obligated to say the words, even though she was dying to know what had caused his outburst. Chanyeol could be a hothead, but that had been on a whole different level for him – or maybe she just didn’t know him that well.

“No, I think I do. At least, I have to say sorry for the way I acted, and in order for it to be a real apology, I think you should know where I was coming from.”

“Okay.”

He sighed, and she could imagine him steeling himself to begin speaking. “So you know pretty much everything that happened with my family and Chen’s, yeah?”

“Mostly,” she answered, biting her lip nervously.

“Did he tell you about my mom?”

“Yeah,” she confessed quietly, her gut wrenching at the memory of hearing about his mother's death.

“I know what you’re thinking – don’t worry about it. It’s actually easier to talk about her when people aren’t saying sorry every other sentence.”

Sena sighed gently.  “I still want to say it.”

“Force of habit,” he said lightly.

She twisted her lips at his reply. “Or just actually feeling sorry.”

He was quiet for a second. “Thanks.” He cleared his throat. “Anyways, my dad decided to tell me yesterday that he’s getting remarried.”

She blinked rapidly, unsure of how to handle that admission. “Oh. Is that a good thing?”

“Considering I have no idea who my future stepmom is, probably not.” Though his voice sounded almost breezy, the bitterness behind his words was loud and clear.

“What?” Sena sat up abruptly, clutching her phone.

“Yeah. Never met the woman. Never even heard about her until yesterday.”

“Oh my god, that’s awful,” she whispered. She could only imagine what that felt like. Growing up with two parents who were crazy about each other was something she took for granted most days, but listening to Chanyeol made her suddenly feel so grateful for her own parents – and inordinately sad for Chanyeol.

He chuckled humorlessly. “Yeah, so that’s kind of why I flipped.”

“No, wait, Chanyeol, that’s really actually awful. I have like a million questions I want to ask, but I feel like I’m going to overwhelm you and probably not help at-”

“You can ask,” he interrupted with a laugh.

She took a deep breath, trying to find the most important question she wanted to ask. She couldn’t ask if he was okay, because who could honestly be okay after receiving news like that out of the blue? Instead she chose to ask, “How are you doing?”

He paused, as if mulling over the question. “Dealing, I think. Processing. But in a more rational way than that night.”

Okay, that was good. She bit her lip nervously, and then proceeded to her next question. “Have you talked to your dad?” That was probably the biggest issue right now. The longer Chanyeol let this drag out, the worse it would be when he finally did confront his dad. And considering that his anger over the issue seemed to have cooled down, maybe now was the best time for him to have a real discussion about his father’s marriage.

“Not yet. I think I want to, but I don’t really know what to say to him right now.”

“I’m sure you have questions you want to ask him, though, right?” If it had been her in his place, she would have slung questions like machine gun fire at her father.

“Well yeah, obviously. Like where the hell this woman came from, and why he never mentioned her, and when they’re planning on getting married, and whether I have to live with them-”

She smiled broadly, not that he could see it. “Sounds like you’ve already got quite the conversation starter right there.”

The line was quiet for a minute, and then Chanyeol laughed a little. “Look at you, you clever girl.”

She reached behind and grabbed her pillow, dragging it into her lap as she grinned. “I know.”

“You’re a good friend, Sena.”

Sena froze, her fingers clenching on the pillow. “Friend?”

“Yeah. Friend. If you want to be friends, that is. But I get that you’re with Chen, so I’ll understand if you’d rather not.”

“No,” she answered quickly, and just as quickly, realized that she meant it. “We can be friends. I think we’re probably already friends, if we’re being honest – we’re just kind of weird friends.” The weirdest of friendships she’d ever had, for sure, but considering the range of things she’d experienced with Chanyeol, it was kind of hard not to consider him as something more than an acquaintance.

He snorted. “I’ll try not to be offended by that.”

“Stop, you know what I mean.”

“Alright, I should probably head back in. Thanks for talking with me.”

“Thanks for explaining.” She smoothed out the wrinkles she’d made in her pillow, feeling supremely relieved.

“Yeah, I owed it to you. Anyways, I’ll see you at school tomorrow?”

“Definitely.”

“Bye, weird friend.”

She couldn’t help her laugh as he hung up. And as she stood to head downstairs to eat, she also couldn’t help but feel that maybe things were starting to look up for her boyfriend and her new friend.