Thanksgiving in California 2.

Getting His Voice Back

By the time it was 7:00pm, everyone arrived at Annette's house happy and ready to meet Gen's new boyfriend. And I know what you're thinking. How did they already know about Onew? Well Annette made it her duty to tell everyone on their way to her house about Gen's new boo. She also made it her duty to inform them that if anyone makes Onew uncomfortable, they are going to get it. She hates disciplining grown men and women, so when they had arrived and kept it reasonable, she was happy.

Annette knows how her family is, she also knows how Gen is, and they are totally opposite. Most of the beliefs in the family are the same.  Marry a black person and have black kids, and keep the tradition going. But Gen is like, marry whomever I feel like marrying, and avoid having children… totally opposite. Annette, herself, has no problem with how Gen lives and encourages her to be herself. However it's hard to explain that to the rest of the family.

When Gen was young, she embraced her differences and loved to talk about her latest crush at school or her new friends, but when her family started hearing about it, they discouraged her and made her think it was wrong to like those people. They said things like ‘Those boys don't like black girls’ or ‘Don't be dating those white boys’ and ‘stop hanging with all those white kids, they aint nothing but trouble’. So Gen stopped talking about it, but she didn't stop liking them. Over time the family got used to it and stopped pestering her, but that didn't stop the comments.

Later on they would say stuff like ‘You're just a little white girl’ or they would say to each other ‘The girl thinks she is white’ even though Gen doesn't do anything considerably white. Gen just lives, and tries to be happy; doing things that make her happy. The family is just playing with her, but Annette sees the scheme, the scheme to make her realize her “wrongs”.  It doesn't make it better that Gen is an artist. Gen's art is one thing the whole family supports and encourages. However being and artist means you find beauty in everything and that you're going to be interested in different things. Some things that the people around you think are weird.

But one thing is for sure, they all love her. They might have given her some bad days and some emotional nights, but they do it out of love, they just want her to succeed in life. And it's only made Gen stronger. A few times Gen has even doubted herself. Thinking that she hated her own race, but Annette is happy she got that out of her head. She is happy that Gen is still being herself, even when the people around her put her down and that she realizes that they are not doing it out of hate.

She is also happy that Gen can sit next to her new boyfriend and not have her family gawking at them all night.

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“We are going to play Family Lineup!” Aunt Tilly says as she brings a bowl full of paper in the living room. She sits the bowl on the table and looks at her family members.

Everyone stops talking and laughing, to look at the smiling alcoholic. They seem to be inspecting her, seeing if she is in her right mind or drunk. Usually if she is drunk she would have one shoulder of her dress down and her bra off, but seeing that her dress is right and her s are in place, they relax.

They all nod at her idea and she starts the game. Onew leans over to Gen and whispers in her ear.

“What is Family Lineup?”

“Family Lineup is when two groups of ten compete to get in an organized line the fastest. The leader who is my Aunt Tilly…” Gen points to the woman. “… gives us what order we should get in.” Onew nods his head in understanding. “Do you want to play?”

Onew smiles and hops up, taking Gen's hand with him. “Of course!” He pulls Gen from the couch and stands with the rest of the family.

Aunt Tilly reaches her hand in the bowl. “Ok… separate yourselves in two teams of ten so we can start this thing. The rest sit down and watch.” Everyone separates and Tilly starts the game. She takes a piece of paper out of the bowl. “Ok! Oldest to youngest!” She pauses and everyone stays still. Only when she yells “LINEUP!” that everyone moves and races to be first to be correctly lined up.

Onew fumbles around his teammates to get in line first, but stops, realizing that he has no idea how old these people are. Gen sees Onew just standing in place and shuffles over to him to whisper in his ear. “Damien is the same age as you…” Gen says pointing towards a tall skinny boy. “… he was born in January, so just stand behind him.” Onew nods and quickly walks over to Damien to stand behind him. As soon as Onew stands behind Damien, the other team yells “LINED UP!”

Aunt Tilly, who was about to take her first sip of “juice” for the night, jerks up, startled by the outburst. She reluctantly sits the alcohol on the table and gets up from the couch. She moves over to the faster team to inspect them. After a few seconds she lifts the arm of the first person in their line. “YOU ARE LINED UP!” She yells. Celebrations and disappointed moans collide in the big living room. Onew frowns up a little. If he wasn't so slow his team could have won. He reassess his feelings towards playing this game. Maybe he should watch from the couch with the others and let someone else take his place.

Tilly gains everyone's attention again by slamming her hand on the coffee table repeatedly.  She swallows the liquid in and clears . “How about  we make this game interesting? How about we place a bet?” she raises her head to the ceiling, thinking. “How about we bet our rooms! Winners get the nice bedrooms and losers get the bad, small bedrooms.”

“AWWW HELL YEA! I'M DOWN WITH THAT!” was most of the responses to Tilly's idea, excluding all of the Holy Rollers in the building. Every year the members of Gen's family fight and fuss over the rooms in Annette's house. All the rooms in the house are good. It's just that some prefer the big comfortable beds in the upstairs bedrooms, than the small hard beds in the downstairs bedrooms. It isn't that bad, in Annette's head, but the rest of the family begs to differ. The small beds in the downstairs rooms could hardly hold a normal sized adult. So most people sharing the downstairs rooms have to sleep on the floor.

“Ok, shortest to tallest! LINEUP!” Everyone moves in frenzy to get in line.

Determined to win this time, Onew moves like lightening all over the floor. Zooming and whooshing past young and old. Gen had to momentarily stop to regain footing when he nearly ran into her. He makes sure he is in the right spot, so that if they lost this round, he would know he wasn't the reason. He is not going to ruin his chances of being on Gen's family’s good side. So when he hears his team scream out “LINED UP!” he both inwardly and outwardly cheer at both his and his team's win when Tilly confirms their victory. However it wasn't over.  His team has to win the most games out of 10 to win the bedrooms. So the celebrating was cut short when Aunt Tilly called out the next formation without warning them. And as soon as she belted out LINE UP, he again flew like the untamed wind around the living room.

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After ten games and several pauses to take water breaks, Onew's team found themselves to be the victors. They all get the rooms upstairs. Even though there are only 3 bedrooms upstairs, the beds are nice and big, and could hold at least three people. Since most of the people on the winning team are smaller they should have no problem fitting three people into the beds and maybe one at the end. As for the losers… GOOD LUCK!

After a few minutes of playfully arguing, everyone settles down and returns to  the seats they occupied before. Boxes of pizza were transferred to the living room while they were playing but not one soul moved to take a piece, even Onew kept his eyes on the prize and didn't let the angelic smell of the pizza deter him. And it all paid off. Now he can sit with the family and happily eat his pizza.

Gen is happy that her team won, but win or lose, she would have been happy. Won: she would sleep in a nice bedroom. Lose: she would have just slept in her mom’s room or the RV. Either way she would be happy and comfortable.

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As 12:00pm came near, exhausted bodies made their way to their rooms for either a comfortable, or uncomfortable, night’s sleep. Turns out even if you were on the winning team, if you came here in a giant RV then you're not allowed to reap the reward. That’s why Gen is walking Onew out the door and to his sleeping quarters. She would be sleeping there herself, but her mother forbade it. ‘Letting it go’ being thrown out the window.

“Sorry you have to sleep in the RV with Jaquan,” Gen says rubbing her bare arms with her hands. She didn't think to put a coat on since she only was going to be outside for a few seconds.

Onew stands in front of her and rubs his hands along her arms to help warm her. Even though it's not working she appreciates his efforts and loves the feeling of his hands on her arms

“It's ok. I don't mind.”

“Ok. Well Jaquan likes to strip in his sleep. So to avoid having any problems, I would get an extra blanket and sleep on top of the bed.” Onew nods and smiles at her. This would be the perfect moment to kiss her goodnight, but right when he thought that, his chest started to convulse; warning him of an upcoming cough.

So not to cough on Gen ,Onew quickly, however smoothly, backed away from her and made his way to the RV door. He quickly told Gen goodnight, and made his way into the RV. Gen frowned. What was that? One moment the guy is rubbing your arms and looking you deeply in the eyes, and the next moment he is running away from you like you got a disease or something.

She shrugs her shoulders and turns back towards the house. She is going to figure Jinki out one day.

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Onew runs to his suitcase in search of his pill bottle. Being in the moment of meeting and playing with Gen's family, Onew forgot to take his medicine for the cough. Thank god he didn't burst out coughing all over the place.

He s the bag, grabs the pills, and makes his way towards the RV bathroom. He takes two pills and throws them down his throat while turning on the tap. He cups some water in his hands and puts it to his lips. With the water, the pills easily swim down his throat and into his stomach to do their magic. He puts both hands on the sink and looks at himself. He should be fine for the rest of the night, he shouldn't wake up in the middle if the night coughing or anything.

He turns and makes his way out the bathroom and into the RV bedroom. He sees Jaquan laying there with one arm behind his head and the other one in a bag of chips. He is sleep and snoring too. Onew smiles, maybe he should sleep somewhere else in the RV. Maybe the couch would be a nice place to sleep. It's big enough and, he smiles to himself, it might still have Gen's wonderful smell on it. Onew frowns, maybe in the future he should be a little less creepy.

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It's about 3:00pm when Gen opens her eyes. For some reason she can't get herself to stay asleep. Maybe it’s the loud snoring coming from rooms adjacent to hers and her mothers, or it could be the loud panging that's coming from the large glossy window in the room. She turns her head and folds it into her pillow. Maybe that will work… no the panging continues to pang, panging right throw the thick pillow and into her ears. Why is this panging happening?  It's an upstairs bedroom, there are no trees around the window. Maybe it's a small wind storm or something like that, making rocks and things hit the window. Gen rolls her eyes.

She gets up and makes her way over to the window, intent on doing something about the noise, even if it's just closing the curtains or something. As she reaches for the curtain string she sees a figure standing outside; well more like crouching. She stops what she is doing and focuses in the figure. The person seems to be collecting things from the ground. Maybe this is the cause to her on and off consciousness.

She watches patiently, waiting on whoever is down there to look up and see her peering down. Then she notices the person's clothing. There is only one person she knows that wears that red beanie. When realization hits Gen quickly, but quietly, opens the window. A burst of cold air hits her and she momentarily pauses, getting her body adjusted to the cold. She leans her head out the window ready to scold the crap out of Onew.

“Jinki! What the crap are you doing?” To avoid waking her mother, Gen was forced to scold him with harsh whispers. “It’s like… three in the morning!”

When Onew hears a voice he looks up and smiles to see that it is Gen. He waves his hands back in forth. “Hay!” he screams, which makes Gen put her finger to in a hush motion. He laughs and whispers a sorry to her.

“What are you doing out here so late?”

Onew puts his hands in his pockets and rocks back a d forth. “I came to see you.” he smiles up to her. “I want to sneak you out of the house like in the movies.”

Gen couldn't help but smile. He is the sweetest thing in the world. Only he would come out in the cold at 3:00 in the morning and want to be all romantic. With his mixture of adorableness and y.

“Okay~ where will we go?” Onew shrugs his shoulders.

“I don't know, but I'm pretty sure we can find something to get into.” At that moment Onew winks at Gen, causing the butterflies in her stomach to flutter. “Are you going to come down?”

Gen busts out in a huge smile and nods her head. “Just wait a minute.” She stands up and closes the window. She looks behind her to make sure her mom was still sleep. She had the window open for a long minute, she is surprised that her mom didn't wake up from the cold air coming in the room.

Gen slowly makes her way to the closet to quickly put on some warm clothes. She didn't bother taking off her large sleeping shirt nor putting on a bra, all she needs is some warm pants and a thick jacket.

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Onew tried to go to sleep on the couch, but he wasn't tired. He tried watching TV and reading a book, but nothing was on TV and the book was a romance which only made him think of Gen. So except for just lying on the couch and staring at the roof of the RV, he decided he would just go see Gen.

 

It took a while for her to open the window. He was out for an whole hour before she finally graced him with her presence. At one point he was afraid that if she didn't answer to his “call” soon, that a neighbor was going to call the cops on him or something. Maybe he should have called her phone except for throwing rocks. Naw, it's more romantic if he did it the old fashioned way.

 

Onew reaches into his pocket and pulls out  the pill bottle. Just in case his cough decides to come back, he will have another one making its way down to keep the cough at bay. As soon as he puts the pill in his mouth he sees Gen coming around the corner towards him and quickly puts the pill bottle back into his pocket while swallowing the dry pill.

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Gen didn't do much. She just grabbed the things closest to her, which was a mint green jacket, jeans, and some boots. The only effort she made was finding some socks to put on.

“So… you snuck me out. What are we going to do now?” Onew looks at the sky in thought.

“We passed a park on the way here. We can go to it and walk around?” Gen smiles at Onew.

“You didn't really plan this out did you?”

“Not one bit, but that is what makes it fun. Spur of the moment.” He wraps his arms around her shoulders and guides her out of the yard and onto the street. The park is in walking distance so there is no need in stealing someone's car. However Gen hates the cold and would gladly steal one of her family member's car, but in this circumstance,  It's really romantic. So she wraps her arms around Onew's waist and enjoys their walk.

It really didn't take that long, just like five minutes. And Gen really didn't feel that cold while walking. She was too busy laughing at Onew describing his hilarious childhood. Actually she didn't even notice she was in the park until 10 minutes after they arrived. It was when they stopped to sit down that she noticed where she was.

“When did we get here?”

“About ten minutes ago.” Gen's eyes widen. 10 minutes ago? Really?

“You're really good at telling stories Jinki. Made me forget I was walking in the cold at 3 something in the morning.” Onew suddenly jumps up and takes off his beanie. He swoops his arm down and bows.

“You are welcome malady.” He puts his beanie back on. He sits back down next to her and takes her hand in his. Gen jumps a little at the sudden contact.  His big hands that are surprisingly warm, holding her much smaller cold hands. It's dark, but she can still see the beautiful difference in complexion.

Onew looks at her in the night. It's not completely dark,  the moon is full tonight and it shines bright on the pond that they are sitting in front of. Gen looks magnificent tonight, she looks beautiful every day, but tonight seems different. Onew doesn't really know how it's different, but it feels different. She seems to be distracted by something and it causes Onew to follow her eyes down to their connected hands. They seem to be spotlighted by the moon; like this is what this night is all about. Connection… connection between two people.

Both Gen and Onew look up at the same time. Their eyes meet and nothing is said between the two. Gen desperately wants to touch him more than what she is doing right now. She wants to grab him by his big head and kiss the daylights out of him, but she wants him to make the first move. So she looks him in the eyes and waits. She waits for him to lean in like he did on their first “date”. She wants to be able to lean in as well and kiss him. No pulling back, she promises.

She won't, stupidly, deny herself this pleasure. His status is irrelevant,  It's just the two of them on a bench, under an oak tree, with the moon blessing them with a bath of cold light. It's just them two with joined hands, starring at each other’s dark chocolate eyes, wanting a kiss to warm their minds as well as their bodies. However…

Onew pulls away from Gen and stands. He walks away from the bench and towards the quiet pond. Gen just sits there, frozen, not really understanding what just happened. Is he not ready, or is he just trying to get back at her for doing the exact same thing to him on their first “date”? She looks over to him; he is leaning against the oak tree kind of looking awkward.

Gen sits back on the bench with hands in lap. What to do now? She swings her legs back and forth patiently waiting for something to happen, but nothing comes. Onew stands at the tree, throwing rocks into the pond. Gen looks over to him, he seems to be upset. Gen doesn't know why, It's not like he was left hanging just a few minutes ago.

Onew continues to throw pebbles into the pond. Not really thinking about anything, but something is on his mind. He won't allow himself to think about it. It's best that he just throw some rocks.

Gen stands up and makes her way over to him. She stands in front of him and takes the rocks out of his hand. She then wraps her arms around him and leans her head against his chest. “It's ok… whatever you're thinking about, it's ok.”

Onew holds her back and smiles. His brain seems to release. It is ok. He took the medicine before he left, he should be fine… and he is. The reason why he took it was so tonight cold be ok. So how come he didn't kiss Gen? What is the reason? Scared? Unsure?

Onew stands straight and grabs Gen by the shoulders. He then turns them both so that Gen is leaning against the tree and he is in front of her. Building up all his courage and trusting that the medicine will continue to work, Onew places his lips onto Gen's cheek.

Momentarily shocked, Gen doesn't move and her eyes stay wide open. She had no idea what Onew was doing until he kissed her cheek. The boy is unpredictable. She is happy though, if he was still upset, he wouldn't have kissed her. She would like it to be on her lips rather than her cheek, but she won't fuss. She is just going to wrap her hands into his jacket and embrace it.

Onew puts his hands to her hips and trails his lips down to Gen's jaw line. He kisses her around that area, making sure it's slow and sensuous. He is starting to get into it; it didn't take that long. Except for trying to trust his medicine and kiss Gen, he is more like trying to taste every bit of Gen's soft flesh. He moves his lips over to her chin, then moving over to the corner of , stalling by disconnecting from her face completely, then slowly placing his lips onto hers.

Gen's jumps a little, while he explored the bottom half of her face, she was completely falling into Onew's abyss. She knew it was coming, but her mind was still lingering on the fact that Onew's lips were making love to her face. And when he did touch his lips with hers she didn't expect electricity to awake and run through her.

It is the sweetest of kisses, neither of them wanting to go too fast or too slow. However the kiss is getting to them. Heartbeats, along with breathing are getting quicker. Hands are getting hungry for more flesh while the lust between the two is getting thicker. And poor Gen who, never had a REAL kiss before, stupidly tries to catch some breath, but is cut short by Onew returning to her. This time the kiss is different, it is no little peck on the mouth, but a real kiss. Gen does not expect this. She does not expect Onew to slip his tongue into so quick. But when he does, lightning strikes boom through her body.

She lets go of his jacket and drives her arms around his neck. He in turn rubs his hands along her hips and the small of back. He his tongue into over and over, exploring every inch of her wonderful mouth, while she plays with the hair at the nape of his neck.

Onew uses his hips to push Gen further into the tree, while his mouth explores deeper and deeper into hers. However, he disconnects his lips from hers and trails them down her neck. By this time, Onew is gone. Nothing exists but him, Gen, and Gen's wonderful body. It's been so long since he has had something close to this. No girl he can think of could make him feel this much want and need for them. Gen has never had anything like this either. Usually if a guy tries to get close to her in this way she would immediately cut him off, but with Onew, she can't help but let him do what he wants with her. Being it kissing her, rubbing her, or pressing his pelvis into her like he is doing right now, she can't help but let him do it.

Neither one of them cared where they were, they were too far gone. It took Onew rubbing his hand over Gen's and a loud gasp from her to make them realize they are going at it in a public park. Yes it is almost 4:00 in the morning, but  people can still be out here.

Gen opens her eyes the same time Onew lifts is head off her neck. They look at each other in disbelief, like they couldn't believe they just had their first kiss. Neither one of them says anything for the moment, but after a few minutes of silence Gen speaks up.

“Um… it's late, maybe we should head back.” Onew nods his head and awkwardly gets off of Gen. He feels a little pressure in his pants and quickly looks down. It is nice that he is wearing dark pants tonight, because if he wasn't, the moon would surely showcase his mad .

He discreetly pulls down his coat so it could somewhat cover it, but it is all in vain as his coat goes back up. Onew prays that Gen doesn't see it on the walk back home.

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When Onew makes it back to the RV, he is not able to contain it anymore. The whole walk back to the house was uncomfortable. His wouldn't go down and it kept rubbing against his pants. He doesn't want to do this, but he must. He makes his way to the bathroom and turns on the shower. He turns it on warm, rips his clothes off and makes his way into the shower. He feels bad, but not too bad. He deserves this, he did a really good job by keeping his hands off himself, but the need is too strong tonight and this is the only way he can get rid of it. It's all Gen's fault anyway. If she hadn't kissed the life out of him, he wouldn't be in this situation. He grasps a hold of his hard on, taking his first slow pull. He'd be damned if he slept with a hard tonight.

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“Nothing but smiles. That's all you been doing all morning,” Annette says while cutting sweet potatoes for her Sweet Potato Casserole.

Gen turns around with a finger in “Huh?”

“STOP EATING THAT BROWNIE MIX BEFORE I BEAT YOU!” Gen quickly takes her finger out of and prances through all the women in the kitchen, and over to her mother.

She places a sweet kiss on her mother’s forehead and prances around her to sit at the table. Putting her hands into her lap, Gen smiles at her mother. “I am not five anymore ma. I don’t sneak-eat brownie mix anymore,” Gen says, smiling innocently.

“Then why do you have brownie on your teeth?” Gen quickly on her teeth erasing the brownie mix. Annette laughs at her daughter. “There isn't any brownie mix on your teeth.” Gen gives her mother the devil eye.

“You fibbing now? I thought you're ride or die for Jesus?”

“Girl hush.” Annette pauses to cut more potatoes. “Why are you so smiley today?” Gen shyly smiles. She tries to hide it but fails.

“No reason. Just a good day I guess." As she finishes, Onew and Jaquan walk in. Causing Gen to go silent.

Annette looks over to the boys as they walk in. Jaquan looks normal but Onew looks like he got sunburnt or something. He is nothing but red. Annette squints her eyes and slowly looks over to Gen. She has her head down playing with the buttons on her shirt. Then she looks back to Onew, who is avoiding eye contact with everyone as well. Something happened, and Annette's guessing it’s something good. It had to be something good for Onew to be blushing that hard.

“Hey Aunty Nette, good morning.” Jaquan leans down and kisses Annette on the cheek and says hello to his other aunts. He looks over to Gen and points his thumb behind him. “We're going to the mall. You wanna come?” Gen looks up and nods to Jaquan. She quickly looks at Onew, then gets up to retrieve her jacket from upstairs.

Annette cuts some more potatoes before addressing Onew. “Good morning Jinki.”

“Good morning Miss Annette.” Onew's reddened face slightly goes down now that Gen is out of the room. However it’s still noticeable to everyone around him.

“So… did you have a good night’s sleep last night?” Onew's face lit up once again, and that is exactly what Annette is looking for. “Sweetheart why are you so red? Are you feeling well?” Onew quickly nods his head.

“Yes ma'am I'm fine.” Onew puts his hands up to reassure her.

“Ok~? You sure? Because you're really red. You're sure you aren't hiding anything form me?” Annette formed the question as a joke, but what she is really doing is fishing for a reaction. And she gets one. Onew slightly widens his eyes, his face only getting redder.

Jaquan looks over to his friend and back to his aunt. He lightly grabs Onew by the shoulders and leads him to the door. He looks back behind him and mouths ‘Shame on you’ to Annette. She winks back at him and proceeds to cut her potatoes.

When at the door, Jaquan faces Onew and looks him deep in the eyes. “What did you do last night?” Since Onew is more comfortable with Jaquan, he confesses to what he and Gen did last night.

“Oh so that is why you lit up like a Christmas tree back there. Well good for you man.” Jaquan pats Onew on his back. He should be weirded out by the fact that Onew just kissed his cousin, but for some reason he isn't. Maybe its because he trusts Onew, it would be a different story if Gen was dating Joseph.

At that moment, Gen comes down the stairs with her jacket on and her purse in hand. She looks to Jaquan and immediately frowns.

“You told him? Really?”

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“So why are you wearing such a thick scarf and glasses?”

 

Onew turns his whole body to look at Gen. They have been walking around the mall for about thirty minutes and every time Gen talks to him he has to turn his whole body to talk to her back. It’s not like its cold in the mall, so she doesn't understand why he is acting like snow is about to fall through the ceiling.

“Just in case. Shinee has had many shows in California and we've come to this mall most of those times. A lot of Korean people work here. I don't want anyone recognizing me.” Gen nods. It’s not like last time, when it was dark.

“Ok, but I know you are going to be hungry soon. How are you going to eat with that scarf around your face?”

“I can stick the food through the folds.” Gen laughs at Onew.

“I am not sitting with you if you do that. How about we sit in a corner where no one can see your face? Then you could let your face breath and you can eat.” Onew clasps his hands with Gen's.  She couldn't tell, but he is smiling.

“That sounds perfect.” He swings their hands back and forth while they walk. “I wonder where Jaquan went. He has been gone for quite a while.” Gen shrugs her shoulders.

“He probably saw a girl on his way to the bathroom and decided to pester her.”

“I don’t know. He has been dating this woman for a while now and I think he really likes her.” Gen's face lights up.

“Really, what's her name?” Onew turns his body to her while walking.

“I don't know that much about her, but I do know she is older than him and has a son.” Gen's eyes flew open.

“She has a child? Oh my gosh, Jaquan is dating an older woman with a child. How come he hasn't told me about her?”

“He hasn't even told me about her. I found out when I was over to his house to help him pack. I was going into the driveway when she was heading out. I saw her and her son in the car.”

“How do you know she is older than him?”

“I know an older woman when I see one.” Gen smiles.

“Oh yea. Onew likes his noonas,” Gen says teasing him. Onew smiles at her.

“Yea yea, Onew liked his noonas, but Jinki likes his Gen.” he leans down and quickly kisses Gen on the lips. Gen almost loses her footing at his quickness, but he catches her and pulls her further into the mall.

When walking past Victoria's Secret, Gen suddenly remembers she needs to buy some more underwear, so she stops and walks over to the store and enters it. Forgetting that Onew is behind her, Gen doesn't see him walking into the store with her. She actually doesn't notice Onew until he accidentally walks into her. She looks up at his covered face and quickly hides the in her hand behind her back. She just kissed him last night, she isn't ready for shopping with him.

“Um… Jinki, how about you go look around and see if the mall has a cookie shop. I would love a cookie right now.” Onew furrows his brows.

Ignoring Gen, Onew holds up a pair pastel yellow . “These are pretty,” he says rubbing them. “And they are soft too.” Gen snatches the out if his hands and pushes him to the door.

“Leave… please,” Gen says, face getting hot. Onew sees her embarrassment and thinks it’s cute.

“Don't you want to try these on?” Gen puts her hands to her face, hiding her blushes, and pushes Onew out of the door.

“OH MY GOD! leave Jinki.” Gen turns to go back into the store, leaving Onew at the door. She looks down at the in her hands and rubs them. They ARE pretty, and soft.

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Onew stands at the entrance of Victoria's Secret trying to figure out what he is going to do while Gen shops for underwear. He walks past the shops just window shopping and passing time when he sees a little clothing store. He remembers key buying lotions and things from the store so he enters and looks around. In the front of the store are lotions perfumes and make-ups, and in the back are dresses and everyday clothing. It’s mostly a woman's store but there are a few clothes and things for men. He skips all the perfumes and lotions and makes his way towards the back of the store to the apparel section. Maybe he can find something for Gen.

As Onew looks through the clothing he spots an Asian couple walking in, holding hands. He smiles in greeting as they walk past, not able to stop staring at them. It makes him wonder, are they together because they want to be, or are they together because its right for them to be? It's a shame that he is thinking this way. He never thought this way before when he would see couples around Korea. Well, he has never been in an relationship before so the thought never crossed his mind. The couple looks to be happy, so maybe they want to be together. He wonders if they ever wanted someone else, someone of a different race. He wonders if they ever dated someone of a different race. What would their parents say? What will his parents say? Why is he thinking about this anyways?

It's all Minho's fault. If he didn't have to speak his mind then, Onew would be fine right now. However, he hates to admit it, but Minho is right. All his life he can remember his family saying ‘You are so smart Jinki, you are going to have a great career and marry a beautiful Korean woman.’ every time they visit. He doesn't think there is a problem with wanting your Korean child to marry a Korean woman, but it seems like it's a demand rather than a suggestion. He remembers when Shinee was doing a TV show with a bunch of foreign women and he picked a girl from Africa over the rest. He remembers the questions he was asked afterwards and the heat he got from some of his fans. He saw nothing wrong with it and still doesn't see anything wrong with it.

He wants to be with Gen, he wants to be with Gen for a long time. However, he also wants everyone else to be happy. His fans, his family, his friends… everyone. He knows one thing, he isn't going to let Gen go.

Why is the world like this. Why do our races have to live on the same earth, but not live together? Why must Korea stay Korean. Yes he loves his home and he wants Korea to thrive, but why can't his wonderful home be shared? And it’s not just Korea, its America too. Jaquan tried to talk to a pretty Indian girl but was rejected because she didn't date outside her race, it was forbidden by her father. Last night when he was throwing away a paper cup he used, he overheard Gen's uncles talking about how weird his and Gen's relationship is. It didn't hurt his feelings, but it did make him think. So what is he going to do, being somewhat famous with a black girlfriend? Minho is right, so now Onew has to change his right to a wrong. He just has to find a way to do it.

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Gen takes her purchase from the cashier and makes her way out of Victoria's Secret. She looks to her left and right, looking for Onew,  but doesn't see him. She would call him, but chooses not to, not ready to see him knowing that she bought the underwear he liked. She is such an idiot. Why in the world did she buy the underwear? It’s not like he is going to see it anytime soon, but the fact that he liked them so much made her buy it. And it was kind of y that he showed his interest in her buying them. OH GOD!

She walks around swinging her bag back and forth, just enjoying her day. She sees a sign hanging from the window of a clothing store that reads ‘Shorts that make any size look thin.’ on it. The sign showcases a beautiful, tall girl with the shortest shorts. She has hips and she has s, but her waist is small with nice shaped legs. She has a perfect body. Gen looks down at her own body. She has hips and good sized s, but her waist is not small at all. It's not huge either, it’s like a good blend between the two. Her thighs are not to her liking and her arms are thick. She has had this type body since she was a kid so she is used to it, but looking at the lady on the sign, she could lose a few pounds.

She remembers watching Sistar's “Touch My Body”, and seeing their pretty shapes. Onew is around that all the time. He is around those pretty girls all the time, so he must be used to skinny girls. Gen is sure the girls Onew dated were skinny. Gen probably is huge compared to the girls Onew dated. Yea, maybe she should lose a few pounds, maybe a few more than a few.

All the girls on every kpop video she ever watched had great bodies.  She really didn't feel self-conscious until now. Her and Onew's relationship is growing and Gen is feeling the pressure. She doesn't necessarily hate her body,  but there are some things that can be improved. She looks back to the sign. Maybe she could become a model… yea right. Gen laughs at herself. Becoming a model is the last thing she wants to do.

She turns to leave but slams into something in the process. She looks up and sees nothing but scarf. Onew was standing behind her the whole time? Gen suddenly gets nervous, not because of the , but because he could have witnessed her checking out herself.

“What are you doing standing right behind me?” Totally ignoring her, Onew points towards the shopping bag in her hand.

“So what did you buy?” Gen jerks the bag behind her back.

“None of your business. Nosey.” she sweeps a bang behind her ear. “So, did you find the cookies?” Onew shakes his head no and lifts up a yellow striped bag.

“I bought us something though.”

Gen lifts her head to look into the bag, but is interrupted when Onew snatches the bag out of her line of sight.

“No, no, no. Nosey.” Gen's mouth falls open in mock shock.

“How dare you. Let me see,” she says while reaching up to tickle his neck.

Onew breaks out in a fit of laughs, but still manages to keep the bag away from Gen, probably cause he is much taller than her. Frustrated that she can't get the bag from Onew, Gen gives up and stomps off. Onew couldn't do anything but laugh. She is so cute when she's mad.

“What's wrong with you?” Gen nearly screams. She doesn't get it. Why do men think it's ok to walk up on someone, scaring the crap out of them. First it was Onew, now Jaquan.

“Where have you been?”

“Just walking around." Gen looks at him suspiciously. Yea… sure

“Hey Jaquan,” Onew says returning to Gen's side.

“Hey man. I saw a store that sold some shoes that you might like. We can head over there if you want?”

“Yea, cool. But first…” Onew gets into the superman pose and walks faster towards the food court. “… to the food court!”

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After five hours of being out on the town the gang comes back to Annette's house tired and ready to eat. Onew still refused Gen access to the things in his shopping bag and Gen did the same. She doesn't understand why he wants to know what she got it’s not like it’s for him or anything. However, he bought her something, so that means she should be able  see what it is. Onew doesn't think that way. He doesn't really want to see what Gen bought but it’s fun to see her get frustrated.

They hang up their coats and make their way to the dining room where everyone else is. Why they walk into the dining room it immediately fills with ‘About time’ and ‘We were about to eat without you’. The sits down at the table and patiently wait for the Thanksgiving meal to start.

Uncle Calvin, who is the pastor in the family tells everyone to join hands and bow their heads for prayer. Gen takes Onew's hand intertwines their fingers. Onew peeks over to her, but she doesn't look up. He smiles and closes his eyes for prayer while caressing Gen's hand with his thumb. As the prayer ends everyone digs in on the delicious smelling food in front of them.

After a good 15 minutes of eating and talking, One of Gen's uncles decides to ask Onew a question. “So Jinki, did I say it right?” Onew nods. “Do y'all celebrate thanksgiving over there in Korea?” His wife, who is sitting to the left of him slaps him on his arm.

“No stupid! There weren't any Indians and pilgrims fighting each other over there.” A few members of the family softly laugh, but they stop when Onew speaks up.

“Actually we do celebrate a form of Thanksgiving. It's called Chuseok. It is celebrated in September except for November. We cook and visit neighbors and thank our ancestors for the harvest. It’s a big holiday in our country.” Gen looks over to Onew.

“So you missed it?” Onew nods. “Why didn't you go back to celebrate?” Onew shrugs his shoulders.

“Dunno.” Gen frowns. If it is a big holiday in Korea, why didn't he celebrate it? She lets it go for now, but later she will confront him.

The rest of the day was filled with laughs and jokes. The men went out and played football. Gen refused Onew to play, not because he couldn't play with the big boys, but he would most likely hurt himself. Then everyone left for their rooms for the night and, in the morning, everyone left. It took the whole day for them to leave, not wanting to go made the process slower.

“Are you sure you want to leave me?” Annette says reaching for a hug from her only child.

Embracing her mother, Gen shakes her head. “You know I don't want to leave but I have to.”  They let each other go and Gen walks to the RV.

“Bye, baby! I love you!”

“Love you too mamma!” Gen hops up into the RV and shuts the door with one last wave to her mom.

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I HOPE YOU LIKE THIS CHAPTER. IT'S TAKING LONGER AND LONGER FOR ME TO WRITE THESE CHAPTERS SOO~ YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS. THIS STORY IS GOING TO END SOON!! YAAAAAAY! I'M POOPED!! BYE BYE. AND THANK YOU QUWANDA AND OCEANSOFXO FOR TRYING TO HELPING ME.

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Adrellkyles
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Comments

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Ashleybook #1
Chapter 11: Thank you for a great story, I finished it in one day. :-)
man1727 #2
Chapter 11: Great story, I enjoyed reading it!!
mellyfly #3
Chapter 11: My goodness, this was a great story. I'm sad to see it end, but I'm happy Gen and Jinki found happiness.

Please write more stories! :)
Lotuspassion #4
Chapter 11: This is a really good story
pattydukes #5
Chapter 11: OMG that was the best story i read in a long time. I even put this on my bookmark to check every now and then if you updated. Please write more ambw stories because i always put myself in the woman shoes. Great writing and keep it up.
minkichi
#6
Chapter 11: I loved this story so much. Hetero! Shinee has never been for me but you made it special and wonderful and so much more. Be proud because you did a great job.
SHINeeEnthusiast #7
Chapter 11: I'm crying I'm so happy but sad as well. I love this story I'm onew biased.
moller #8
Chapter 11: Just wanted to say I loved the story. I think you really captured his personality. I am sad it is done but glad they ended up together here.
Meridith #9
Chapter 10: Omg where's the next chapter the anticipation is killing me ....I totes want them to do it