Now, if Amber and Iseul were people who remembered things, their lives would probably have a lot more structure and a bit less stress because of getting reminders at the very last possible second.

Unfortunately, this was not the case for the duo. 

", ! How could we have forgotten that our parents were coming down for dinner tonight???" Iseul yelled from down the hall, phone tucked inbetween her ear and shoulder as she looked through the available restaurants that could cater to vegetarians, as her mother was one. 

   "I don't know!" Amber yelled over a pile of dirty laundry, hoping to find something semi decent (and semi clean) to wear to meet their parents. While their parents weren't overly strict about their choices and lifestyles, they still considered themselves important enough to have their children dress decently to see them. "Why didn't you put it on the calendar??" She finally fished out a nice sweater and skinny jeans for Iseul, hurling the clothing down the hall, before trying to decide between two button ups for herself. She'd wear her old trust jeans she was currently wearing to dinner tonight. Her parents would be proud she even bothered to put on a button up, to be honest.

"White or black?" She asked aloud, to no one in particular. Iseul picked up her clothes from down the hall, catching the tail end of the conversation. She walked over, curls bouncing everywhere. She leaned over, inspecting the two shirts closely, pursing her lips.

"Hmmmm... White. Roll the sleeves up too, there's a stain here." She pointed to the cuff of the button up where a mysterious red blotch stood out against the pale material. Amber nodded, "Gotcha!"

"Alright team, we've got.... ten minutes before they get here, let's GO!" Iseul yelled, before calling dibs on the bathroom and locking it. Amber groaned, turning to her room and depending on the crap lighting and mirror she had to make sure she looked presentable for her parents tonight. She laughed, however, when she heard Iseul cursing her curls once again. 

"Shut up, I can hear you!" Amber heard the shriek from the bathroom. She laughed even louder, and if Iseul hadn't been fighting with the hairbrush that was entangled in her hair (again), she probably would've beaten Amber with it.

The doorbell was a cheerful sound, having been modified by their local mechanical engineer (i.e. Iseul) to sound like one of those trumpets at the baseball games, but to the girls, it was a warning. The parents had arrived, and although they weren't terrible, they were terribly embarrassing and who knew the lengths they would go to. Especially Iseul's mom.

"Are you going to let us in, or are we going to freeze out here because you're both too slow?" Ah yes. There was Ms. Bae. Iseul groaned, opening the door.

"Hello mom. Have you achieved frostbite yet or do I need to come back in five minutes?" She asked, arching a brow. Ms. Bae laughed, pulling her daughter in for a hug. Amber was right behind her, greeting her parents cheerfully. 

"Where's dad?" Iseul asked as they made their way to the restaurant. Ms. Bae shrugged.

"Don't know, probably off with Jaekwon somewhere face." That earned her a mortified shriek from her kid.

"MOM."

"I'm being honest! What do you think those two love birds go off to?" Ms. Bae waved her hands around. While Iseul would insist that she was completely sane, and nothing at all like her mother, Amber could tell you that she took after her mother in personality. 

Amber engaged herself in her own conversation with her parents, smiling brightly. "How's Jackie?"

"Oh, studying hard. She'll start visiting colleges next week, the top three are in the area, so we're not too worried." Her father hummed, and her mother beamed. "Yeah, she also got a boyfriend! They're so cute together~"

"Oh. That's... great. Good for Jackie!" Amber smiled, albeit it was a bit forced. It was something she hated that her mother did, reminding her that Jackie was more successful in getting boyfriends than she was. Her mother had made a few comments that it was because of her being best friends with Iseul, that people got "the wrong idea", but her father thankfully was more open minded and shushed his wife quickly. 

"What about you?" Mrs. Liu asked. Amber knew the game at this point. Act oblivious, don't play into her mother's petty games. "Oh, you know, Music Theory's been given me a hard time, but Chaelin and Iseul have been helping me out a lot--"

"Who's Chaelin?" Amber winced at the tone in her mother's voice. She wished she'd just stop. "Chaelin... Is Iseul's girlfriend." She admitted. She was never a good liar, and she was sure Iseul would probably mention her tonight. 

"So Iseul even has a partner? Interesting..." Ms. Liu pursed her lips, falling into the all too familiar silence of judgement that Amber hated all too much. It was going to be a long, long night. 


She wasn't wrong. Her mother had made comments under her breath, and sometimes even to Iseul and her mother's face. While Amber and her father tried to hush her, and Iseul (god bless her, Amber thought) laughed it off as she went, it still wasn't right to her. It wasn't fair that almost everytime that she came along to these family dinner that she insulted the Baes, even though they had known each other for basically Amber's entire life. Ms. Bae announced the end of dinner, offering to pay and ended up leaving with her father to split the bill, despite the college student's protests that they should pay.

"Nonsense," Ms. Bae waved it off, "Let us trest our children like children once more, since you're all big and grown up now~" She teased, pinching both girls' cheeks before leaving with Mr. Liu. Ms. Liu just glared over at Iseul, who was just keeping her eyes trained on Amber, mentally reassuring her that it was almost over, and that she would be back at home and free to rant and probably cry as much as she needed to.

"So I heard you were seeing someone, Iseul." Her mother started, and Amber immediately snuck into her seat. Iseul raised an eyebrow. She knew perfectly well about how Mrs. Liu felt about her uality, and having her bring it up was something new to say the least. Whenever it was brought up, it was usually about how "they found a new tea that could cure homouality, your family could use it!" 

Their mothers were never pleasant to each other after that. While Ms. Bae was still in love with her husband, that much was true, she was not about to let some woman who didn't understand anything about him and his lover or her daughter talk in such a disrespectful manner to them. It was not a good family dinner that evening.

"Yes, I am." She stated simply, pushing her curls out of her face. 

"So you've found someone and my Amber hasn't? I don't see how that works." Oh no. She's not going there is she? Amber glanced over at her mother. The older woman's face was serious. Oh no. Oh no no no.

"Oh, she has." Iseul answered without a hitch, calmly drinking her tea. Amber looked over with wide eyes. What exactly was her best friend up to??With a glance at her mother's face, she found herself not caring. The pure look of disbelief and horror that crossed over her mother's face was perfect.

"Yeah, a guy named Kris in her Music department. They're really cute together. They've been waiting to make it official, so only the roommates know, which is me and Tao, who's in the Robotics department as well."

"Is this true, Amber?? You actually have a boyfriend?" Mrs. Liu turned to her daughter. Amber just nodded. She might as well go along with it.

"Well, we'll just have to meet him, won't we? Call him up, ask him to come here!" The woman demanded, and Amber looked over at Iseul with panicked eyes. Her best friend still looked as calm and poised as ever. It was beyond her right now why Iseul never joined the Drama department. Or Poloitics. She was really good at keeping a straight face while lying.

"During finals? Now how is that fair? Mrs. Liu, you'd have to wait until at least mid way through next semester to even consider meeting him. Kris is from Canada, and goes back there for break, so after jury he's off to home and won't be back, and then we all have to get settled back in and readjust back to school life... College life is hectic, ma'am." Holy . Amber blinked. Iseul really was straight up lying with a perfect stoic face to her mom. This was incredible.

"Well, we'll just wait until then, won't we?" Mrs. Liu was determined, and Iseul nodded. "Of course! We're sure we can arrange something once next semester's in place."

"It's a deal then."


Amber didn't start panicking until they closed their door behind them, and to be honest, she was quite proudo f herself. The internal screaming was starting to hurt. 

"Are you crazy, Izzy???" She screeched, turning to her best friend. Iseul blinked. "Huh?"

"You just told my mom I'm dating Kris, when I haven't even found the courage to even approach him about the topic of liking him! What do I do?" She pulled on her hair, breathing heavily. Iseul immediately went into "protect Amber from hyperventaliting" mode, leading her best friend to the living room, letting her fingers wrap tightly around her wrist, being able to feel her pulse and lull her back from an oncoming panic attack.

"Don't worry about it! We have more time than you think."

"Do you even have a plan??"

Iseul kept a perfectly straight face. "Yes. We're getting Kris to become your boyfriend by the time your parents ask to meet him again."

Remember how Amber said that everything was starting to be fine? Yeah, you can scratch that out now.
 

Yoooo. So, finally done with the semester, and I got this chapter out. Fun fact: I've had to rewrite this THREE. FRICKING TIMES. At first, the Liu's had little to do with this chapter, it was more about Iseul than anything. But as I rewrote it, the more it became clear to me about how to get the action ruling: the mom. I'm ABSOLUTELY sure that Mrs. Liu is not like this AT ALL irl, but for the sake of the story, she is. So yeah. FINALLY updated, and I'll see ya'll next time!Uh, comment, subscribe and all those nice things? I guess? I'm sorry if ya'll don't like this chapter, I'm just so irritated that I've lost it three times ;;;; But I promise next update will be next week and (hopefully) better!

~Dannie