My head whipped to the direction of her voice, automatically taking one giant step from Kai. From the corner of my eye I could see him doing the same as he dropped his hands from my shoulders, standing up ramrod straight.

"Mom."

The word slipped out from shock.

I guess that was one way to tell my parents I had a boyfriend. Let them catch me letting the guy maybe almost kiss me in public.

It's perfect. I should write a book.

My mom didn't say anything as she stared at us, her arms full of groceries, hanging open slightly, eyes wide. In fact, we all stood stock still as we each waited for someone else to make the first move. I probably should have, considering none of us would be in this predicament if I had just been honest about anything from the beginning of everything, but my mind was blank from the shock, and my face probably mirrored my mom's, although slightly more pink.

"Hello," I heard Jong In say from next to me, his voice steady and strong. Both mine and my mom's heads snapped to look at him when he spoke. "My name is Kim Jong In. I'm-" he hesitated, shooting a glance my way for a moment, I guess asking permission before realizing I was in no fit state for much of anything, before turning back to my mom and continuing, "-I'm Soo Young's boyfriend."

Again, none of us moved or said anything after that. My brain was having a lot of difficulty turning itself back on again and catching up with the situation. I turned to look at my mom to see how she was reacting to what he had just said. Her face remained the same as she turned to me and asked;

"Is he really your boyfriend?" 

I looked between her and Jong In, unsure of what to do having never been caught in a lie before. Or caught not sharing the whole truth, I guess would be a more accurate description. Although I guess omitting the truth is techinally considered a type of lie.

So I just did what I'd usually do in any situation; I told the truth.

Well, I nodded my head anyway.

The next thing I knew my mother's eyes were watering up as she pulled her hands up to her chest and clasped them together while the grocery bags still hung from her arms.

"Oh thank God! I thought you would die an old maid!"

Wait. What.

~

The next few minutes were a bit of a blur. My mom invited Jong In over for dinner while I was still trying to get my brain to function properly so I could keep up with the situation better, but it steadfastly remained in it's comatose state the entire walk home. My mom started drilling Jong In on information about himself, almost looking like a teenage girl fangirling over an idol from her excitement. He took it in stride, though, not seeming bothered by it so much as suprised by her energy over it.

He wasn't the only one.

Of course, I think part of the reason I was so miffed was because my mom was asking him questions about things that I still didn't even know yet, questions it still hadn't occured to me to ask. I was happy I was learning it all, just annoyed I was learning it because of my mom.

She got information out of him like how all of his siblings are girls, a couple of dogs, and the fact that his dream was to be a dance teacher.

I was particularly annoyed about her being the one to ask about that last piece of information, but he didn't know my dream so I tried not to let it get to me too much.

When we reached the appartment we followed my mom into the kitchen, half because she couldn't seem to stop talking to him and half because Jong In was carrying some of the groceries for her. Jong In and I sat down at the kitchen table after we helped put away the groceries while my mom started cooking dinner as she continued on with her questions. When she had her back to us, Jong In would shoot me amused smiles, once reaching his hand out to grab and squeeze it before returning his own back to his lap. I was glad to know he wasn't anywhere near as freaked out by my mom's behavior as I was.

I was suprised when I heard the front door open not too long after this, and for one crazy second I was scared my dad had come home early and I'd have to deal with his reaction when I was still processing my mom's, but then I reminded myself it would just be Jin Ri getting back from school early. Weirdly early since she had started meeting up with Xiuming almost every day after school for the past couple of weeks, but it had to be her. Something probably came up for Xiumin and he had to cancel on her.

Today, however, was just full of suprises for everyone.

Trailing behind Jin Ri as they entered the kitchen as well was none other than Xiumin.

"I'm home," Jin Ri said unnecessarily. "And I brought a friend."

"You must be Xiumin!" my mother squealed, looking even more excited, if that was even possible, than before when she looked up and saw him. She sidled through the kitchen that was becoming crowded in order to greet him, a big smile on her face. "I've heard so much about you!"

I glanced over at Jin Ri, who had glanced over at Jong In while arching her eyebrow and smirking, definitely having figured out who he was, but Jong In didn't notice as he had glanced over at Xiumin with a suprised look on his face. 

"What are the odds of this?" my mom asked, turning around to better face all of us. "My eldest daughter bringing her new boyfriend home on the same day that I run into my youngest daughter and her boyfriend whom I didn't even know existed."

There it was. There was that anger making it's way to the surface with passive agresive comments now that she's had time to calm down.

"She didn't know?" Xiumin burst out, although instead of looking at Jin Ri when he asked, he was looking at a sheepish Jong In.

"I agree with Xiumin on this surpise thing. I can understand not telling your father, but me?" Here she threw her arms around, sniffling fake, dramatic tears. "I never thought you'd ever get married."

"We're dating, not engaged!" I exclaimed, trying weakly topush her off, that being the switch that tuned me back onto the real world. That and the trigger for a blush. "Why don't you react like this for Jin Ri?"

"Because she had expressed interest in boys way before she was your age," my mom answered, pulling back to look at me, keeping up the dramatics. I couldn't help but steal a glance at Xiumin at my mom's words, even while I was blushing even harder, who I noticed was looking at Jin Ri, who, of course being my sister, was just as red as I was. "I was beginning to think you were a lesbian and just didn't know how to tell us."

Scratch that, I was redder.

"No, mom. I am very much straight," I mumbled, now staring very determindly at a speck of dirt on the floor as she stood back up to return to the food.

"I can't believe you're dating Jin Ri's younger sister," Xiumin commented, leaning against the wall of the hallway leading to the kitchen with his arms crossed.

When I looked up, I saw he was talking to Jong In.

"I can't believe you're dating Soo Young's older sister," Jong In commented back, pulling his leg up and grabbing hold of his ankle. He seemed to be trying to look nonchalant, but I could see the faint shade of pink in his tan cheeks.

"You two know eachother?" Jin Ri cut in.

"Oh yeah," Xiumin answered easily. "He's friends with one of my cousins. He's like family."

I looked back over at Jong In and gave him a questioning look, wondering if it was one of the guys we sat with at lunch.

"He's Kyungsoo's cousin," Jong In clarified.

"Kyungsoo?" I asked, looking back over at Xiumin. "You guys don't look much alike," I said without thinking.

"Have you seen Tao and Lay?" he shot back, raising an eyebrow.

I stared back at him confused at first, then I remembered that Tao and Lay were brothers.

"Touche."

"You know," my mom said as she continued cooking. "I can almost forgive the fact that you didn't tell me you had a boyfriend just because I got to see something like this."

I bit my lip and stared guiltily at the ground, catching on that I was definitely in trouble.

"Almost?" Jin Ri asked, trying to feel the situation out to see if my mom had any weaknesses on this to help me out.

"Almost," my mom repeated firmly, smile still on her face. "And I'm looking forward to when your father gets home because then we'll be asking all sorts of fun questions about how this all got started and why Jin Ri doesn't seem at all surpsied by it."

Jin Ri tensed up, realizing she was going to be going down with me.

"I would just like to state that I told you the day of when I started dating someone," Jin Ri said, lowering her voice as she took a step closer to my mom.

"Traitor," I mumbled loud enough for her to hear.

She then proceeded to turn around and stick her tongue out at me, to which I responded in kind. I was distracted when Jong In suddenly busted out laughing.

"Sorry," he said, covering his mouth as he calmed himself down. "It's that I've never seen you like this before."

"Because you've never seen me around peole who annoy me before," I said, shooting a look at Jin Ri.

"Excuse me!" she gasped, hand over her heart, feining offense.

"Do you not listen to Chanyeol and Baekhyun at lunch at all?"

"They're harmless, though. They haven't tossed me to the dogs, yet."

"I can't believe you just called our mother a dog."

"That's not even what I meant."

At that moment the front door opened again, and a few seconds later Xiumin was moving out of the way to let my thoroughly confused father into the kitchen.

"Hello?" he almost asked, looking between Xiumin and Jong In before looking at me, my sister, and my mom, waiting for someone to give an explanation.

"Dad, this is Xiumin," Jin Ri introduced brightly as she stepped back towards where they were.

"Oh, nice to meet you," my dad said, shaking Xiumin's hand before turning to look at Jong In who was standing up now.

"This is Jong In," I fumbled out before standing, unsure what I should be doing even though I had just seen Jin Ri do almsot the same thing. I mean, in her case, my dad already knew who Xiumin was, her boyfriend, and my dad still had no idea who Jong In was even after I said his name. But other than that, you know. Exactly the same.

"O.. kay. Nice to meet you too," my dad said, shaking Jong In's hand as well.

"He's Soo Young's secret boyfriend," my mom said, turning to face us, smiling brightly.

I stood frozen as my dad's grip on Jong In's hand got noticably tighter.

"Boyfriend?" my dad asked, shocked.

"Yes," Jong In said, nodding. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

My dad stared back at him for a moment looking like he was going to be sick before he reeled it back in, relaxed his grip and said;

"Interesting."