“Take a bite first.”
 

Minhyuk nods and looks at the enticing burger in front of him. He would have gladly eaten it given any other situation. But right now, his stomach is bubbling in anxiety for answers he’s not sure he is ready for. He still takes a bite out of respect.

He chews slowly, taking this time to ponder and reflect on why he really felt the need to see his mom’s new lover.

The student who was silently eating by the corner earlier quickly pays his bill and flees towards a man waiting in his car. This reminded Minhyuk of the time their dad picked him and Jisoo up from school one Friday afternoon. His father told them his meeting ended early and brought them to an arcade right after class. At that time, they didn’t know he just wanted to spend more time with them while he still can.

Minhyuk drinks his iced tea and blinks his eyes to will tears away because of the memory. He remembers waiting for Jisoo to come back from the bathroom when he had a peculiar conversation with his father.

“Thanks for letting your sister win the last game.” Sehun pats Minhyuk’s shoulder. He just scoffs in response then. He wanted to win for sure but he’d just rather not see Jisoo’s scowl for the rest of the night.

“I’ll make sure to win next time.” Minhyuk raised his fist to show his determination, but his father just ruffles his hair.

 “Thank you for being so understanding and caring. Please always look after your sisters and mother for me.”

“What do you mean, dad? Are you going somewhere for business?” His father quickly responds by shaking his head. Minhyuk barely noticed him wiping his eyes.

“It’s just… they try to hide their pain and sadness, but you always see through them.”

“But dad, you do too.” Minhyuk stares at his father then, notices something odd in his expression but cannot pinpoint exactly what. 

“Yes, Minhyuk. That’s what makes us so alike.” He smiles with his eyes but it makes the bags under it look more noticeable.

Jisoo comes back then and the conversation ends. They bond together with just the three of them then they buy dinner to bring home for the whole family.

Minhyuk only makes sense of this conversation now.

He puts down his half-eaten burger and looks up at the woman in front of her.

“Aunt Wendy? I think I have some questions to ask.”

“Go ahead. Ask me anything.”

Despite the verbal reassurance, Minhyuk can’t help but notice Aunt Wendy’s jittery hands clutch her glass of orange juice. Minhyuk apologetically smiles at her.

“Um… How long have you and mom been together?” He asks hesitantly. He then adds, “I guess I just want to understand your relationship, if that’s okay.”

Wendy nods at him, still keeping that small smile to ease his worry. He thinks she needed the assurance more than he does.

“It’s been a few months.” She gulps her drink before continuing. “I’m not sure how much your mom has told you… but we would have let you know sooner if we were in a different situation.”

Her voice gets softer towards the end of the sentence. The change in tone makes Minhyuk look up. It’s the first time he sees Aunt Wendy look vulnerable.

She then asks.

“How did you take it?”

For a moment, Minhyuk is struck with a pang of something uneasy. He saw the way their mom grew happier, while her sister sadder, and their grandparents angrier.

“It’s unfamiliar.”

Those around him are showing clear emotions, but he doesn’t have any idea what he should feel about the situation. Even until now.

She nods in response and takes a deep breath.

“I want to let you know… that acknowledging our feelings, and eventually acting upon them, was not as easy as we thought it would be. We had greater considerations.”

Minhyuk swallows. He doesn’t want to feel guilty. He knows his mother loves them and have always made their family her priority.

“Have you thought about not getting into a relationship with mom despite your feelings?”

Aunt Wendy doesn’t answer right away, whether she was finding the right words to say or pondering on the question. Her answer comes softly.

“I honestly did… so many times.”

“Even if you would have regretted it?”

The woman in front of him fails to hide her surprise at the question.

“It’s selfish to regret, isn’t it? But then again, either choice is selfish.”

Minhyuk swallows, still unsure of what he expects from this conversation.

“Why so?”

He looked up to meet the woman’s eyes. Her words are gentle and soft, but her eyes are full of certainty.

“After all that thinking, I realized that I don’t want to let your mom go. I want to sing to her when she has trouble sleeping. I want to listen to her thoughts and help her release her troubles. I want to make her smile everyday and make her happy. I want to show her how much I love her – cook for her, bring her flowers, binge-watch her favorite shows. I want to be there with her in all her ups and downs.”

Minhyuk is taken aback. That doesn't sound selfish at all. Aunt Wendy speaks so passionately that she seems to have forgotten to put on her usual smile. It’s like she’s allowing him to see through her.

“I love Irene. Loving her involves everything that she values… and Minhyuk, you and your sisters, are the forefront of that. I want to be a part of her life and that means being a part of yours too. It’s selfish… to have this much love for a family knowing they might not want you back.”

Gulping, Minhyuk stops himself from crying right then.

“Between us, Minhyuk, I’m still going to let your mom go if I need to. It’s just… I don't want to.”

Minhyuk doesn’t keep track of how many minutes pass by. It’s getting darker outside and tears are now prickling his eyes.

“Aunt Wendy, you don’t have to.”

---

As soon as she gets home, Wendy changes into more comfortable clothes and washes her face. While doing so, she can’t help but recall her conversation with Minhyuk earlier. Wendy has succeeded in keeping her tears at bay during their unexpected talk, but even she herself is surprised at how vulnerable she got.

As she had already known, Minhyuk is a really kind kid who considers his loved ones’ emotions before his. And so, it surprised her that by the end of the day, he seemed to have accepted her that easily.

They are parked a block away from the house. Wendy wanted to at least see Minhyuk walk safely back to their house without Irene seeing her car.

“Do you love my mom?”

Wendy admits she’s thought of every question out there when Minhyuk went to talk to her. But this… wasn’t it obvious already?

“Absolutely.”

Minhyuk surprisingly shows her a small smile before nodding. Something was off but Wendy let it be. He left her car with a totally different aura than when he was standing outside the faculty room.

Shaking her head to clear her mind, Wendy plops on her bed and dials Irene’s number.

“Hi. I’ve missed you.”

Wendy beams at Irene’s face on her phone. Irene’s hair is sticking to places and she is not wearing any make-up. And yet, she still looks so stunning right now.

“Hello. Me too. Are you okay?”

“Hm?” Wendy sits up straight and checks how she looks on the phone screen. “Yeah, I’m fine. You had something to say earlier, right?”

Putting her phone down on the stand, Irene leans forward to sit more comfortably by her dresser.

“I want to invite you for dinner on Sunday.”

Irene’s smile is infectious. Wendy’s lips instantly turn upward at the invitation.

“Sure! Where do you want to go?”

“I meant I want to invite you for dinner… here at home.”

Irene speaks so mellow and yet so sure. Wendy frowns.

“Rene, I’m probably the last person your children want to see.”

Wendy didn’t want to sound harsh, especially not to Irene. But despite her conversation with Minhyuk, she’s sure he still needs time to take in the events happening around him. Wendy can’t even imagine how Jisoo would feel being around her.

What she said did not faze Irene in the slightest. She seems to have expected her response.

“I just thought that it would be better for them to be around you more. I think they’ll understand us better that way.”

Us. Wendy’s heart takes a backflip at that. But, she still has other concerns.

“I want to support you. I really do. But aren’t we rushing them with this?”

Irene looks away to think. She takes a deep breath and sighs.

“I don’t think so,” she pauses. “I don’t know. But, what I am sure of is that they need fully functioning adults that will show them love. And honestly, I’m on the verge of exploding.”

Wendy chuckles… because she understands.

“Wen, I need your help with this.”

She sighs, resigned.

“Okay… But please ask them first. If they agree, we’ll push through with the dinner. Is that okay?”

Irene nods profusely.

“Sure. Thank you, Wendy.”

They share a laugh. Then, Irene speaks again.

“I do love you, you know?”

Her day has been overwhelming. She takes in Irene’s words and it immediately comforts her.

“I love you too.”

Irene nods, smiling more freely now.

“You look like you need the reassurance.”

Wendy laughs.

“I’m the one helping you out here. Why are you reassuring me?”

This is what Wendy hangs on to. No matter the challenge their situation poses, moments like these always outweigh the worry and despair she is feeling.

“It’s okay if you don't want to talk about it. But, I really mean what I said.”

Wendy relishes the comfort Irene emits even through the phone. It’s then that Wendy realizes that maybe she is not that selfish.

She now feels foolish that a teenager had realized that before she did.

---

Just imagine me holding your hand throughout the dinner. Call me later. :)

Jisoo sends a bunch of flower and heart emojis to Jennie before locking her phone. Then, she takes a deep breath before stepping into the dining room. The family agreed on inviting Wendy for dinner tonight but just the idea alone makes Jisoo anxious.

For what? She doesn’t even know.

As Jisoo enters the room, she sees Aunt Wendy trapped in a tight hug between Mina and Yeri. Mina’s tiny arms cling onto hers and lead her to the dining table. Minhyuk greets her with a bow and a wave, polite but friendlier than she had expected from her brother.

Nanny Jin also had some time to chitchat with her. They seem to get along really well. But, that is Nanny Jin. She is kind to everyone.

Interestingly enough, dinner turned out to be normal. It wasn’t their first meal together anyway. Everything was just like how it was before, but now with just a little more awkwardness and less innocence.

Jisoo mainly just listened to their conversations. She tried her best to join and share similar stories, but she found it just too difficult to connect. She has to admit though that she had never been as glad to have sociable and talkative siblings as she does now.

They talk about school. They talk about TV shows. Nothing new. Nothing special. Nothing unusual. That is, until the rain came. It is a Sunday night and Jisoo reluctantly admits that it is best for Aunt Wendy to stay the night. With the sound of thunder outside, there really is no better choice. Aunt Wendy argues that the thunderstorm would only last a few hours and she can leave at midnight but everyone else protests.

Jisoo retires to her room and gets ready for bed. On her way, she overhears her little sister’s voice beg Aunt Wendy to read her a bedtime story. As expected, she and their mother quickly ascents. Jisoo chuckles quietly. No one can really resist Mina’s puppy eyes.

With the lights closed, Jisoo lies still on her bed. She exchanged a few messages with her girlfriend until she fell asleep. As awake as Jisoo was, she knows Jennie was tired from her weekend vacation with her visiting relatives.

A few hours later, Jisoo tosses and turns on her bed. She checks the time on her phone and then decides to go get some milk, hoping it would make her even the slightest bit of sleepy.

The hallway is dim and silent as she walks. It is already way past her siblings’ bedtime and they are all probably sleeping. The door to the guest room is closed and seemingly unoccupied. Unlike the guest room, her mother’s door has yellow light peering from beneath. Jisoo assumed her mother would be with Aunt Wendy in the guest room or stay up late in the living room. She is most likely mistaken.

As she nears the bottom of the stairs, Jisoo unexpectedly finds Aunt Wendy in the dining room. Her first instinct was to retreat and pretend she wasn’t there.

But, somehow, her feet still trudge forward, quiet, but not in secret.

“Oh. Hi.”

Wendy notices her immediately. Jisoo bows to greet the older woman and returns her small smile. She notes that it’s different from the big, loud grin she’s used to seeing in the few times they saw her.

“Hi. Are you okay, Aunt Wendy?”

“Yeah,” the older woman’s smile grows softer. “I was just thinking about some things and got sentimental.”

Wendy turned her gaze back down on the dining table. Jisoo walks towards the kitchen to get a carton of milk from the refrigerator while keeping an eye on her in her peripheral vision.

“Would you like some milk?” Jisoo brings out two small milk cartons.

“I am already good with water,” Wendy says as she lifts her half empty glass. “Thank you for the offer.”

In any other day, Jisoo would take that as her cue to leave. Not that Aunt Wendy was waiting for her to do so. Maybe there is something different about today. Jisoo decides to sit diagonally across her.

Wendy welcomes her company with warm eyes.

“Can’t sleep, either?”

Jisoo nods as a response. She stays up late often, but never this late. She bites her lips as she thinks of something to say. Aunt Wendy must have sensed her struggle.

“I was considering going home, since the rain has already stopped.”

Jisoo shakes her head and glances at Aunt Wendy.

“Mom would get mad.”

They both stifle a laugh. Jisoo doesn’t know why she finds it amusing. Maybe, that little shared moment shows some connection between them.

“You’re right. She probably would. I’ll go home first thing in the morning, though. Work starts early.”

Jisoo nods at that, thinking of something to say. Wendy beats her to it once more.

“How are you doing these days?”

At his point, Jisoo has a practiced answer. It was always easiest to talk about menial things, like school.

“I’m good. School’s a little bit busy, but I’m doing well.”

“That’s nice.” Wendy sips on her water. Ji