NOTE: Sooo maybe I forgot to update here and I just posted CHAPTERS 22-28 in one go!

Mingyu pulled up at his parents house. He was a little bit late, but his family was used to that by now. There was a folder on the passenger's seat filled with information about art schools, what the requirements were and when they had deadlines. Mingyu was just going to e-mail it to his father, but Seungkwan convinced him it was better to show him in person that he was doing his research and taking this seriously. He turned off the engine and when he stepped out and made his way to the front door something caught his eye. Something out of place. A motorcycle. He rushed to open the door and barged into the sitting room where his parents were sitting. With the owner of the motorcycle. With Minghao.

“What's going on here?” he blurted out loudly. “Why are you here?”

His boyfriend placed the drink he had been holding onto the coffee table and stared at him, “You invited me. Kind of rude of you to be late.”

“I didn't think you'd actually come! We laughed about it!”

“Don't yell, honey.” His mother had gotten up and she greeted her son with a kiss on the cheek.

“He's right you know. It is rude to be late when you're having guests over.” His father decided to weigh in.

Mingyu thought this was a perfect time for the ground to open and swallow him whole. How was this an actual situation he was in. He was getting scolded by his parents and his gay biker-gang lover at the same time.

“Oh, I remember when I brought your father home to meet my parents for the first time. He was quite nervous.” She giggled and Mingyu stared at her in horror.

“Only because your father was a nightmare. Minghao here has nothing to worry about. I'm delightful.” He laughed and Minghao smiled politely, leaving Mingyu even more confused.

“Well...” his father continued, “...either way, we've never met a boyfriend of Mingyu before so this is a special occasion I would say. Now...” he directed his attention fully onto the Chinese boy sitting on his couch, “...that motorcycle of yours, is it-”

“Wait!” Mingyu interrupted, “Why are you assuming he's my boyfriend? I never even said that I'm...gay” he mumbled the last word, “Why would you think that I have a b-”

“Son, please, I'm trying to have a conversation with your boyfriend. Sit and have a drink.”

In a daze Mingyu sat down on the couch, vaguely aware of the conversation they were having about Minghao's motorcycle.

Mingyu snapped back into focus when his father asked him what he was holding and he realized he still had his folder clutched tightly in his hand. “Oh, ehm, some information I gathered on art schools and stuff...I thought you might want it or something.”

“Ah, very good. You can leave it on my desk in the study. Tonight is not about business. It's about dinner! Which should be about ready. I suggest we move to the dining-room” He stood up and waited for the others to do the same, “Tell me, Minghao. Am I pronouncing that correctly by the way?” Minghao nodded. “Have you ever had deer meat?”

All throughout dinner Mingyu was as tense as could be. The short time between his father telling him he could quit medical school and now wasn't enough to erase all the years of his life being controlled and shaped by his parents' wishes alone. A few months ago his father had been talking to him about finding a nice girl to marry. And now here they suddenly were at the table, having dinner with his boyfriend. There had to be some sort of ulterior motive, right? But apart from the occasional comment about how his grandparents would have reacted to him not becoming a doctor and his parents' forced smiles when Minghao told them he worked in a nightclub, there didn't seem to be anything malicious going on. His mother even expressed her interest in seeing more of Mingyu's art saying he always was a creative child.

Even so, Mingyu ate through dinner as if a bomb was set to explode if he crossed a certain time limit. As soon as he finished he practically jumped up and announced it was time for him to leave. Of course Minghao wasn't going to stay with him gone, so he got up also. As they were putting on their coats in silence Mingyu said, “I almost forgot. I have to drop this on my father's desk. You go on ahead.” He wasn't sure why he was being so short with him, but he felt a bit miffed that he had just shown up here. He just wanted this night to be over.

He went into his dad's office and placed the folder on his desk. He was about to leave when his father entered and walked over.

“Oh, I'm glad I caught you. I have something I wanted to give you.” He reached into one of his desk drawers and handed Mingyu a few leaflets. Mingyu looked at them and almost dropped them on the floor. He was holding leaflets about safe gay .

“I'm not naïve, son. I know you've most likely already engaged in ual activities, but as a parent and a doctor I felt it was my responsibility to give you these and remind you of the importance of-”

“Yes, okay, awesome. Thanks.” Mingyu said before his father could continue. He turned around and stormed out.

***

“It was horrible you guys! He actually showed up for dinner! He was talking with my parents when I arrived! And they were like 'don't be rude Mingyu. We're talking to your boyfriend, Mingyu' Can you believe that?”

Seungkwan, Seungcheol, Jisoo and Chan had been planning to play billiards that night, but instead they were now listening to Mingyu's rant about his dinner.

“Don't you think it's rude of you to get this upset over your parents accepting who you are?” Seungcheol was the first to speak his mind.

“I'm not- I'm...I'm holding leaflets! I-”

“Do I need to remind you that some of your friends aren't that lucky?” Seungkwan was the next to point out to Mingyu that he was reacting very poorly. “I understand it wasn't an ideal situation, but having your parents invite your boyfriend over because they want to get to know him seems a lot better than your father kicking you out and denying your existence.”

“Seungkwan, I didn't mean...”

“You know what I got when my father found out I was gay? A pamphlet for a gay conversion camp and a punch in the face.” He stood up. “I'm not in the mood to play billiards anymore. I'll be in my room.”

“He's right, dude.” Chan weighed in. He stood up and placed a hand on Mingyu's shoulder who was clearly shaken by Seungkwan's reaction. He started to realize just how ungrateful he must seem.

“And it's also rude to Minghao.” Seungcheol added, “He made an effort to get to know your family. If you don't want him to meet your parents as your boyfriend even though they're cool with it, how do you think that makes him feel? Are you ashamed of him?”

“Of course not! I just...I didn't think he's the type of person who would want to hang out with my parents. And vice versa!”

“Didn't he also go to that dinner party with you?” Jisoo pointed out.

“Because Wonwoo asked him to!”

“Face it, Gyu. This is a clear case of YTA.”

“What does that mean?”

“You're the .”

<>

Minghao drove his motorcycle home with mixed emotions whirling inside of him. He had decided to accept Mingyu's parents' dinner invitation because he wanted to see for himself if his parents had really turned over a new leaf. That and he wanted to learn more about his boyfriend. About who he was and what his life was like. He also thought that it would make Mingyu happy, that he would think it was a nice thing of him to do. But instead Mingyu seemed annoyed and had made every effort to cut the evening short.

He arrived home and the sight of the mess of limbs that was Seokmin and Soonyoung making out on the couch greeted him. Without hesitation he went into the kitchen, filled a large glass with water, walked back over to the couch and poured it over them. Soonyoung, who had been on top and absorbed most of the water, jumped up with a loud yelp.

“Dude, what the hell!?”

Seokmin looked up at his housemate with an apologetic look on his face, “Hao, I'm sorry! I thought you'd be gone longer. How was dinner?”

Minghao didn't reply. He just walked into the bathroom and shut the door. A warm shower would make him feel better.

“What's his problem?” Soonyoung muttered.

“Don't be mad at him. He gets kind of uncomfortable with PDA. And I guess...” he stared at the closed bathroom door, “...dinner over at Mingyu's house didn't go so well.”

“Mingyu's house? Like...his parents house?”

Seokmin nodded. “Don't tell anyone I told you this, but Hao was actually really nervous. He changed his outfit like three times and he even asked me for my opinion. He never asks my opinion about his clothes.”

“No offense, but I would have been nervous too if I were him. He doesn't exactly fit in with Mingyu's family.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean...Mingyu comes from the upper class. Minghao...well...he works in a shady bar and probably deals in illegal substances on the side.”

Seokmin narrowed his eyes, “Are you saying he's not good enough for them?”

“No. I'm saying that they might think that.”

As much as he hated it Seokmin understood where Soonyoung was coming from. Right or wrong, there was a big gap between their two lives. But the same could be said for most of the people currently in relationships in their groups. It could be said about his own relationship. That didn't make it easier.

Seokmin, knowing his friend, knew that Minghao probably wanted to be left alone right now. So he took Soonyoung to his room where they quietly stayed for the rest of the night. The next morning he suggested they'd go out for breakfast before Minghao was even up.

It was well into the afternoon by the time Minghao woke up and he was still in his pajama pants when the doorbell rang.

“Hey...” Mingyu greeted him when he opened the door. He looked like he hadn't slept much and he was holding a large brown package of sorts.

“Hey.” Minghao replied.

“I'm really sorry about yesterday and-” he yelped when Minghao wrapped his slender fingers around his wrist and pulled him inside. He closed the door behind him. He didn't need the whole floor to know his relationship business.

Mingyu wasn't quite sure what kind of emotional state his boyfriend was in, but he guesses he was pretty pissed off. He started to awkwardly unwrap what he was holding to reveal a painting underneath. Minghao stared silently as he did so. Mingyu held up the painting in front of him, “I'm not so good with words, so I made you this.”

Still not saying anything Minghao walked away, but when he came back he had a hammer in his hand.

“O-okay,” Mingyu sputtered, “I get that you're mad, but there's no need for violence! I'll just take the painting and leave!”

Minghao sighed, “Will you relax? I'm just going to hang your painting on the wall.”

“Oh...so you like it?”

Minghao shrugged, “Of course I do.” he replied as he walked around the room deciding what the best place would be, “You made it for me.” After deciding on a spot (right where you would see it as you walked through the door) and hammering a nail in, he turned around to look at Mingyu and take the painting from him.

“Why are you crying!?”

Mingyu was sniffing silently with tears in his eyes.

“You look and act all mean and angry, but really you're so sweet.”

“Stop crying!”

Mingyu inhaled sharply through his nose, “Don't tell me to stop crying! I can cry if I want to!”

“It's just normal for a guy to like his boyfriend's paintings! It wasn't sweet!” He yanked the painting out of Mingyu's hands and placed it on the wall. He stared at it with an odd sense of pride when he felt arms wrap around his shoulders from behind.

“I'm really sorry about how I acted yesterday, Hao. Everything just took me off guard. Thank you.”

Minghao relaxed in Mingyu's arms. “Just so you know, I didn't go over there and introduced myself as your boyfriend or anything. I think they'd already kind of figured it out somehow.”

“I love you.” Mingyu whispered in his ear and Minghao was extremely grateful that he couldn't see his face right now because it was probably bright red.

“W-whatever!”

Mingyu increased the strength of his hug and swayed him gently from side to side, burying his smile in his neck.

“I love you, too. Idiot.”

<>

Again Jeonghan found himself waiting in the visitation room for one of the guards to lead Jihoon in. This time he wasn't alone though. Wonwoo was with him. He was planning to let Wonwoo do most of the talking this time around.

The door opened and Jihoon entered. He looked worse than last time, Jeonghan noted. Jihoon sat down and nodded to Wonwoo as a greeting, he looked at Jeonghan but his gaze got avoided.

“Jeonghan is still kinda pissed at you.” Wonwoo was the first to speak.

“He probably should be.”

“But I'm pissed off at the both of you so I win.”

“I thought you weren't pissed off at me anymore.” Jeonghan said and he lightly pushed his shoulder.

“I'm not really. But you,” he focused his eyes on his friend on the other side, “How can you only call Jeonghan?” He wasn't really angry anymore. There was no point in holding a grudge in this situation. There were more important things.

Jihoon opened his mouth to say something but closed it again since Wonwoo lifted his hand to stop him. “Let's move on. I don't want to spend the little time we have to ask about why you called or didn't call who you did. Are you doing alright in here?”

“I'm alright. Just trying to keep my head down and get out of here ASAP. It's mostly working.”

“What happened to your hand?” Jeonghan asked. He had noticed the messed up knuckles right away.

“Oh, eh, a wall pissed me off.” Jihoon said with a slight smile.

“Do people in there know who you are?” Wonwoo asked. He had been concerned for Jihoon's safety quite a bit. If people knew who he was that might make him a target, but on the other hand people who didn't know who he was might mistake his size and soft appearance for weakness and think he'd make an easy target for all sorts of things.

Jihoon shrugged, “Some of them I guess.” There had been a few instances of a run in with another inmate, but he had somehow managed to avoid any real consequences besides a short trip to the medic. He cared more about not getting anything added to his sentence so he avoided trouble by avoiding people as best he could. Nothing to worry his friends over. His biggest problem really was standing at the back of the room. There was one guard who just loved picking on him. He decided to change the subject away from himself.

“What about you guys? How are you?”

“We're fine. I'm working on my thesis, the others are mostly working.”

“You still hanging out with those two?” Jihoon asked, aimed at Jeonghan.

“If you mean Jisoo and Seungcheol yes, I am. Is that a problem?” The question made him feel defensive. He didn't want Jihoon to ask him about his lovers.

“Do they make you happy?”

“Do they make me happy?” The question was so unlike Jihoon that Jeonghan had to repeat it to make sure that was what he had asked.

“Yeah. If they make you happy then there is no problem. I want you to be happy.” He meant it. But asking Jeonghan if he was happy with someone else left an unfamiliar bitter taste in his mouth.

“Oh...yeah, I guess they do.”

The tension in the room was strange. Wonwoo thought it might be because he and Jeonghan knew just how much relationships had changed since Jihoon got locked up. He decided to clear the air.

“You should know that most of us have gotten closer to some of the members of the Carrots and the Rubies, so when you get out things are going to be different.”

“Who is most of you?”

“Well...Seokmin and Soonyoung...Hao and Mingyu...me and Jun...”

“So basically all of you are ing people from other gangs now?”

“Jihoon!” Jeonghan scolded him, “It's more than that. They're not just 'ing'.”

“If you say so.” Jihoon shrugged and thought back at his own short-lived affair with Soonyoung. It made sense that he was more serious with Seokmin. Seokmin was easy to love. Not that he had romantic feelings towards the Ruby, but even if he had it made way more sense for him to fall for Seokmin.

“I guess things really changed since I've been here.”

“But...” Wonwoo interrupted, “I guess a lot was going to be different anyway. What exactly happened, Jihoon? With you? With your father's gang?” All the Daebaks had discussed this. Too much was kept in the dark about Jihoon's arrest and the arrest of so many of his father's main gang including his father.

Jihoon shook his head as if he had nothing to say.

Wonwoo looked at his friend. He knew him well enough to see that something was troubling him. “Jihoon, did someone snitch or something?”

“I guess you could put it like that.”

“How come your sentence is so much lower than most of the other guys that they got? Did your dad make a deal for you?”

Jihoon hesitated. Hesitated to tell them the truth. He was afraid they would lose all respect for him and he'd truly be alone.

“Hoonie, you can tell us.” Jeonghan said. He looked so vulnerable and he desperately wanted to be able to reach out and hold his hand.

“It was me.” Jihoon's voice was hoarse and broken with emotion. “I snitched and I made a deal.”

Neither Wonwoo nor Jeonghan seemed to know what to say to that. Jihoon couldn't take their confused silent gazes, so he got up and left his friends to sit in the silence he had created.

<>

Hansol placed a cup of coffee on the table in front of Seungkwan who was, as usual, busy with some assignment or other. He sat down across from him. Hansol had told him a few times to take it easier, but every time the result was an argument about how he had to do all of this in order to graduate as soon as possible. So now he just tried to support him with coffee and relaxing activities whenever Seungkwan allowed himself to take a short break.

“Babe?”

“Hmm?” Seungkwan hummed in response without looking up.

“I've been meaning to ask you. What do you want to do for our anniversary?”

“Our anniversary? What are you talking about?”

“In a few weeks it'll be one year since we first got together and I thought you might want to celebrate it in a special way or something.”

Seungkwan looked up with a frown on his face, “What? Are you talking about the time we first slept together or something?”

Hansol chuckled, “Don't look so upset. I know it's not the anniversary of us being an official couple, but isn't it an important date? I mean that first night was pretty amazing in its own right and I just think that-” he stopped talking. Seungkwan had started to cry. He covered his face with his hands. Hansol got up and wrapped his arms around him. He gently shushed him. “Hey, what's wrong? Why are you crying?”

“Because...” Seungkwan said with hitched breath, “...I can't even remember what date that was and here you are planning an anniversary for it. I'm a terrible boyfriend.”

“Of course you're not.” He knelt down so he could look up at his boyfriend's tear-streaked face and wipe them away with his hands. “Seungkwan, I don't care that you don't remember, because I do and I just want to spend that day with you and remind you about how much I love you.”

His words were unable to stop Seungkwan's tears from falling and Hansol wrapped his arms around him again. Seungkwan clinged onto him and started to cry even more. He was crying in such an uncontrolled manner that Hansol figured it wasn't just the anniversary date. It was probably the pent-up stress coming out. The only thing he knew what to do was let Seungkwan cry it all out and hold him and hope that it was enough.