Dinner was interesting, to say the least. As soon as the food was set up and we were all seated at the table my parents started shooting rapid fire questions at me and Jong In about how long we had been dating, how it had happened, why I hadn't told them about it, and all that stuff that I very much did not want to go into detail about in front of a group of people. It helped a lot, though, when Jong In started chiming in to answer the questions. I answered a lot on my own, but I struggled and was all nerves about it, so I was thankful when Jong In was able to speak up and answer the questions and talk about everything more confidently. I could tell he was a litle shy about it too, but he had already told his mom about us, which he mentioned to my parents, so it was a probably a bit easier for him since he had already done something similar not too long ago.

As my parents started getting their answers, they began calming down and seeming relatively okay with it. I guess after my mom's display before she was more than okay with it, but my dad seemed to be accepting it, with some difficulty but he thankfully wasn't angry or anything. Honestly, I think a lot of it had to do with Jong In, because I had been right, they did like him. I think it also helped a lot having Jin Ri and Xiumin there as well, especially when they finally turned their attention to him to get to know him a little bit better. 

Xiumin was pretty relaxed about talking to them. When he had first walked in, I could tell he was a bit nervous, as is probably usual when you're meeting the parents for the first time. After Jong In being dropped on them, though, I guess so long as Xiumin acted normal and had no suprises then they wouldn't be too hard on him, and I guess he knew that.

All in all, dinner was good. Towards the end everyone was winding down from earlier's excitement and we were all laughing and joking. After we finished, my dad recommended we all move to the living room.

"I guess I can leave the dishes for later," my mom commented as we all stood.

As everyone started moving towards the livingroom, I saw Xiumin had grabbed some of the empty plates and was moving them to the sink. Nobody else seemed to notice as Jin Ri had already thrown herself on the couch in the other room while my dad had his arm around a nervous Jong In's shoulder as he guided him into the room as well, my mom following closely behind.

"You don't have to do that," I said as I grabbed some of the plates and moved them as well while he continued clearing the table.

"It's the least I can do," he said as he the water in the sink, letting it warm up before grabbing the soap and a wash cloth.

We had gotten all the dishes moved to the sink so I wiped down the table as he started in a washing the dishes. Once I was done with that, I walked back over to the sink, grabbed a clean towel, and started drying the dishes he had cleaned, not feeling okay with letting him do all this alone since he was a guest.

"What are guys doing?" Jin Ri asked from the doorway, making me and Xiumin turn.

"The dishes," he answered back simply.

"Ew," Jin Ri said, wrinkling her nose. "They're doing the dishes," she called back over her shoulder, which was then answered back by mom's protests that we didn't have to.

"I want to," Xiumin tried calling out, which Jin Ri sent on to my mom to make sure she heard and relented.

"I'll be right back," Jin Ri said, pointing down the hall towards the bathroom.

Xiumin nodded and went back to doing the dishes. We continued in silence at first, then he spoke up.

"Did Jin Ri," he started, the stopped, handing me a dish he had just cleaned. "Did Jin Ri ever mention me when we were in high school?"

I took the dish without replying immediately. I felt kind of weird talking about how Jin Ri used to feel about him without knowing for sure if she'd be okay with it. I decided telling him a little wouldn't be so bad since they were dating, which usually meant that they both liked each other.

Usually.

"Yes," I answered back simply.

"Did she like me at all back then?" he asked.

At fist I wanted to say that was a question he should probably be asking Jin Ri, which I still think, but his wording through me off, and I had to ask about it.

"At all?"

"I know I wasn't her favorite person back then," he said, cleaning the dishes with a bit more force than necessary. "I was just wondering if there was ever a time when she didn't, I don't know, hate me or anything like that."

"Hate you?" Where in the world would he have gotten that idea from? True, I wasn't there most of the time they interacted, so I couldn't testify to how she had treated him or acted around him, but she said she was always very polite. "Why would you think she hated you?"

"She just acted so different around me. I just assumed..." he trailed off here, and I think I got what he was saying.

"She acted different because she was nervous around you," I clarified, feeling Jin Ri would rather me spill that than let him think she ever hated him.

"Nervous?" he asked, turning to look at me with wide eyes.

"Yeah, she said you guys were really different, and she was afraid you'd think she was annoying if she acted like how she usually does."

Xiumin's hands slowed as he processed what I had just told him. He picked his pace back up before speaking again.

"She told me at graduation that she had always respected me, I guess I just didn't believe her, or really understand how much if thats why she acted like that for so long."

"She really liked you," I couldn't help but say. "She was really sad when you left for college."

I looked over at him, hoping to see understanding on his face of how much I was saying she had liked him, but instead I saw the corners of his mouth turning down into a frown. He sat the last dish down and grabbed another towl to help me dry, there being a stack in front of me as I dried dishes much slower than he cleaned.

"I got a scholarhip to a really good college. I couldn't turn it down."

"Then why'd you come back?" the words slipped out of my mouth as I thought them, and I regretted the prying words as soon as I said them. It wasn't any of my business, and I didn't want to make it sound like I didn't like that he had come back, not when it made Jin Ri so happy.

"Jin Ri didn't tell you?" he asked, giving me a questioning look.

"I didn't know she knew."

I was a little hurt she hadn't shared it with me, but at the same time if it was something personal, she might have felt wrong sharing it.

"My mom got diagnosed with cancer, and my dad had died from a heart attack a few years ago, so I had to come home to take care of her."

"Oh," was I could think to say, staring down at the dish I had been drying. "How is she?"

"She passed away a couple of months ago."

I felt awful. I shouldn't have brought it up, I shouldn't have asked any questions. What was wrong with me? Prying into someone else's life, asking them personal questions that made them think of terrible things that I'm sure they'd rather put out of their minds unless it was absolutely necessary to think of them.

"I'm sorry. You don't have to tell me anything else if you don't want, if it makes you uncomfortable."

"It's weird, but talking about the death and everything after isn't that painful or uncomfortable to me. Like it's something seperate. It's talking about the memories that really gets to me." I glanced back up at him as he sat the last dish down, all of them dry, and I was suprised to see his eyes go glassy. "Bringing up the little details isn't so bad, you learn to get used to them, but there are some moments that just mean so much. They're the one's that it hurts to bring up or even just remember. Because you'll never have them again. You'll never get to have another moment, special or not, with that other person. What makes it worse is that, to the rest of the world, it's just another death, one less number on a population census, and it doesn't mean anything to them. The life that they lead, the pain at the end, it almost seems like it's all for nothing. No lessons were learned, no lives were saved. They're just gone. That's what hurts."

I stood as still as I could, listening as he talked, trying not to cry. I was suprised by him suddenly telling me all this, but I didn't know what else to do but listen. As he said the last sentence, he looked up at me, and I saw his eyes were damp, but drying up a bit. Then he smiled at me.

"It's why I like Jin Ri so much. She's always so happy, she helps me not to spend too much time thinking about things like that. She helps me see that all lives aren't all in vain. We push down memories of people who are gone away because we have to in order to survive, but we never really forget the people who did so much for us, the people who shaped us-"

At just that moment, Jong In walked back into the kitchen. He glanced down and noticed that we had finished washing and drying the dishes and were just talking, "just" being a realtive term.

"What are you guys doing in here?" he asked, walking over to stand next to me, his face curious.

"Talking," Xiumin answered back smoothly, folding his arms and leaning against the counter.

I almost could believe I had just imagined our conversation from the look of him if I wasn't still so emotionally shaken up from it. What Xiumin had been telling me was personal and important, and I wished he could have been able to finish that thought, especially because I didn't think we'd ever have this kind of conversation again. I wouldn't be able to bring it back up or ask what else he had to say, and I got the feeling he wouldn't want to bring it up either.

"Look, I know Soo Young's great and all," Jong In began smiling at Xiumin as Jong In rested his hand on the counter so his arm was against my back, his other hand in his pocket, in an almsot territorial stance around me, "but she is my girlfriend. Your's is in the livingroom."

Xiumin rolled his eyes as he stood up from leaning against the counter, beginning to walk towards the door to leave the kitchen.

"So cocky. You just wait until Sunday, Kai. I'll destroy you."

And with that, he was gone.

"Destroy you?" I asked Jong In.

"Kyungsoo's family always has a family day on Sunday and they started invinting Xiumin. I end up going a lot because I'm close to the family," he shrugged. "Sometimes we play some games, and unfortuanely Xiumin's good at all of them."

"Oh," I said as I began putting the dishes away in the cabinets above me. "That sounds like fun."

I was so startled in the next second as I felt Jong In slide his arms around my waist from behind me that I almost dropped the dishes I was lifting up. I gasped, both from suprise at him and from almost dropping the dishes, and he laughed. Not the loud laugh like usual, but low and quiet, and I felt it, too, his body shaking since he was holding me so close to himself.

"Did I suprise you?" he asked, teasing.

"Yes!" I quietly exclaimed, turning to look at the, thankfully, empty doorway before I rushed to put the dishes away. "And you should probably let me go since my family could walk in any second and see us like this."

"Like what?" he asked, lowering his head so he was speaking into my ear, sending shivers up my spine.

"Like this!" I said a little louder this time, frazzled. "In this-this... compromising position!"

Here he did let out that laugh that I knew well, holding onto me harder as he burried his face in my shoulder.

"Compromising position?" he asked incredulously, voice quiet muffled as he said the words into my shoulder.

My face flamed red as I turned my head to glare at him.

"I'm sorry," he said, calming himself as he smiled down at me when he lifted his head back up, that look in his eyes again. "You're just so cute."

My glare softened, but my cheeks kept their color. I found it very hard to stay mad at him.