(Youngjae's Perspective)

With a cold bottle of water taken from the Im's house in hand, Youngjae locked his car and went up the pathway to his parents' front door. The misspelled 'emergency' text he'd received from Daehyun was a clear indicator that the anxiety hit pretty bad, and Youngjae's number one priority was getting that calmed down.

He didn't bother to knock on the door. The door was never locked when people were there and awake. The noise of avid discussion from the sitting room covered up his coming into the house, and when he glanced in, Daehyun... wasn't there. The three in the room were only made aware of his presence when he cleared his throat and questioned, “Where?”

The answers he got varied.

“Youngjae, you're not supposed to be here yet either!”

“What the hell are you doing marrying a woman, Youngjae?”

“On the back porch.”

Youngjae pointed to the one person who answered his question. “Thank you, Hyunmi.” Then he motioned between his umma and his older brother. “You two can wait.” Then Youngjae his heel and marched out to the back porch before they could protest. Quiet with the door, so Daehyun wouldn't jump out of his skin with the noise. “There you are,” Youngjae said softly, gently latching the door behind him.

From his place sitting on the steps, Daehyun glanced over his shoulder. “That was fast,” he mumbled out, a tired smile settling on his lips.

'At least he's not so deep in the anxiety that he can't smile.' Youngjae matched with a smile of his own. “I told you I'd get to you as fast as I could, didn't I?” He handed over the water bottle to Daehyun before taking a seat next to him. 'The Ims also only live a few streets down. I could've walked and still made it here pretty fast!'

“Thanks...” Rather than open it to drink, Daehyun began to press the cold bottle to various spots on his neck and face. Temperature control, which is exactly why Youngjae made sure the water he brought was straight from the fridge.

While Daehyun did that, Youngjae used his hands to fan air his way in the hopes of expediting the cool down process. “Did you not bring one of your hand fans with you this time?”

“It's in my bag,” Daehyun said. “Didn't think to grab it before coming out here. Probably should've...”

“It's fine. We can make do with this.” Youngjae fanned his hand a bit faster to punctuate his sentence, and Daehyun let out something between a huff and a snort. When Daehyun switched from using the outside surface of bottle to cool himself down to actually taking sips from it was when Youngjae finally asked, “So what happened?”

Daehyun sighed. “I... I was going to message you anyway,” he started. “We got here, and Youngwon was already here. I excused myself for a little bit and decided that I should probably call you since your brother was here and... and he was clearly wanting answers. I couldn't- I didn't want to say anything without you here. So I... I was trying to get to my phone without them noticing and then... and then I-” He gulped heavily, shaking his head from side to side slightly. “I got so mad, Youngjae. And then I felt like I had to run.”

Once he was sure Daehyun was finished speaking, Youngjae concluded, “So you came out here and messaged me.”

Daehyun nodded and quietly took a sip of water. There was silence for a few beats before he spoke again. Slouched over, only making eye contact with the ground. “Youngjae?”

“Hm?”

“Do you think... Do you think that I'm... overbearing? Or uh... controlling?”

Youngjae carefully draped an arm over Daehyun's shoulders, adjusting the way he was sitting so he could view Daehyun's face better. “I don't. If anything, I worry that you don't speak up enough,” Youngjae admitted. When Daehyun peered over at him, Youngjae offered a reassuring grin. “Why do you ask?”

Daehyun's lips pursed out in a pout. “When I was getting my phone, I... I overheard your umma say that I was very strong willed and... that I was keeping you in line and... that made me so mad that I-I mouthed off to her. All I could think of was that- that's how the Jungs talked about... her.”

Daehyun's voice cracked, and Youngjae was immediately pulling him into a tighter hug. One with Daehyun's head cradled on his shoulder and arms wrapped tightly around the other. “You are not her,” he declared firmly. “You are so far from that. You care about me, you support me, and you love me for who I am and help me be the person I want to be. You're not even in the same league as her. You... are so much better. Okay?”

With a shaky sniffle, Daehyun nodded his understanding, and they sat in mostly silence. The only sound being Daehyun calming down his breathing with mild sniffling and shakiness until he'd eventually settled down.

“Do you want to wait in the car while I talk with them?”

Daehyun shook his head and leaned out of Youngjae's hold. “No, I... I promised that we'd face this together. I don't want you to have to do it alone...”

At the tiny upturn of Daehyun's lips, Youngjae gave a little smile of his own. “Alright. But if you feel like you need to step out, let me know. I'll give you the keys to the car so you can get the AC running.”

They stared at each other with unspoken understanding, then they stood up from their seat on the porch steps. Daehyun smoothed out his skirt and took a few more sips from his water before giving a thumbs up.

Youngjae kept hold of Daehyun's free hand as they went back into the house with quiet steps. For as much as he'd been mentally preparing ever since he got off the phone with his umma the day he agreed to this meeting, it didn't feel like enough now that Youngjae was in the moment. Now that it was time to out and say it, he felt so very small in comparison to the potential reactions he'd get from his family. It was bound to be a high stress situation, and with Daehyun's anxiety simmering on the back burner, Youngjae wanted to get this done as fast as possible so they could go home and unwind, no matter what the outcome was.

He paused right before reaching the arch way with a heavy lump settled in his throat. Hearing Youngwon battling with their umma like this brought Youngjae back to high school. Back to a time where he'd hear them going back and forth every time he snuck out of his room for some water or a bathroom break. Back when he was still refusing to talk to his older brother because of the type of person he'd been beforehand and not trusting him to actually mean his words of apology. Where his only proof that his brother meant those words was in how much Youngwon stood up for Youngjae's preferences when he was thought to not be looking.

Daehyun squeezed his hand slightly, a tiny little squeeze of reassurance that brought Youngjae back to the present day. They shared a nod. 'Well, here goes...' He exhaled with the mental preparation. Then they took that last step into the archway, and Youngjae interrupted their back and forth by firmly declaring, “I'm gay.”

Youngwon pointed a finger at their umma while she looked between her sons, expression on the border of panicked and horrified. “Aha! I knew it! You two did bully him into getting a girlfriend!”

“That's not-”

Daehyun spoke, and for the first time in front of Youngjae's family, his voice was unmasked. “I'm not a woman.”

There was a pause. Then all three of them, each with a different tone, exclaimed, “Wait, what?”

“Daena isn't a woman. Daena is my boyfriend dressed up like a woman,” Youngjae further clarified. “I was waiting to tell you until after we were married, but...” He bit back the more accusatory words that the rest of that sentence was as he processed the reactions of the room. Youngwon was, for once, speechless about something. Hyunmi looked as though the gears in her head were turning, as if she were trying to piece things together.

But his umma? She sat down on the couch, a hand to her forehead as if she were sitting due to her world spinning around her. “That... that can't be right...” She shook her head in denial. “That's not right at all. I don't believe it!”

“I have pictures on my phone, Umma-”
 

“Her brother!” She interjected, and Youngjae wasn't pleased about being interrupted. “Daena said she has a brother. You've met her family. That has to be who you have pictures of!”

“I do have a brother, but that doesn't change the fact that I'm not a woman.” Daehyun sighed, and Youngjae felt his fiancé's blunt nails clutch tighter in his hand. “It's the truth whether you believe it or not.”

Youngjae glanced over at Daehyun, noting his tense stance, the way his eyes were on the floor, and the way his cheek was slightly indented. 'He needs to get out of here before it gets worse,' he concluded. Youngjae grabbed his car keys, then maneuvered their held hands to replace his hand with the keys to the car. They spoke with their eyes, Youngjae requesting Daehyun to go wait in the car, and Daehyun battling with the idea of leaving Youngjae alone. “I'll be fine,” he assured quietly. “Take care of yourself first.”

Another beat of silence. Then Daehyun nodded, fully accepting the keys. “Please don't be long.”

“I'll try not to be.”

Once Daehyun had grabbed his bag and shoes and left the house, that's when Youngjae turned his attention back to the ones in the sitting room. He didn't bother to mask his annoyed tone now that he didn't have to worry about Daehyun picking up on it and feeling worse than he already did. “Now, I'll make things real clear for you. I'm gay. I always have been. I'm getting married to a man in a couple of months, and nothing that happens here will change that.”

“But... But... This... why this? Why make me think-”

“That you'd finally gotten your way?” Youngwon butted in with a pointed glare towards their umma.

Minjung frowned, but before she could say anything to defend herself, Hyunmi spoke. “He hit his breaking point.”

“Why are you talking about me as if I'm not right here?” Youngjae huffed with a cross of his arms. “But yes... I did hit my breaking point. That point was learning she and Appa asked Jaebeom for help in figuring out what my type was. And then using his answers to try and set me up with women they thought fit his descriptions.”

“So that's how Jaebeom fits into this,” Hyunmi commented. “Did he know the whole time that Daena wasn't a woman?”

Youngjae nodded. “Yeah. He's the one that came up with the plan to make it look like I finally found a girl I was willing to be with.”

Youngwon brought a hand up to his temple, right on the edge of being able to clutch his fingers in his hair.“And you went with it?”

“I did. Want to know why?” Youngjae didn't bother to get verbal confirmation before continuing, making sure he was staring his umma in the eye. “Because I wanted my parents to care about me and how I was doing. I thought that if the battles about my preferences stopped, then I'd finally get that. And I didn't.”

The betrayed look on Minjung's face was replaced with something almost desperate. “Of course we care about you, Youngjae-”

“When?” he interrogated, voice cracking. “Was it the day I told you I was gay where you and Appa were talking amongst yourselves like you were mourning? How about the innumerable times you and Youngwon fought about me when the two of you thought I wasn't listening? Every single time you tried to sneakily introduce me to a woman despite me constantly telling you I didn't want that? What about the day you told me you were so glad that I was out of my gay phase? Or even today when you were telling Youngwon and Hyunmi that Daena was keeping me in line?” He gulped heavily. He hadn't meant to let so much of his emotions bleed into what he was saying... “Did you care about me those times? Because if you did, it was lost on me!”

“It's always been about you and what's best for you, dear-”

“And how many times have I told you that it's up to me to decide that? I'm not a child that you have to decide everything for!” he fought back. Youngjae took a steady breath to calm himself. He told Daehyun he'd be fine, and he wasn't going to fall apart in front of them like this. So he collected his thoughts as best he could in an attempt to get himself together. “I've given you so many opportunities over the years to accept me, and this is the last one I'm giving you. I'm marrying the love of my life soon, and I'm not about to step into that battling you. So make your choice. Accept that I'm gay, or I'm moving on without you.”

His umma was speechless, mouth open and moving to form words without sound. Youngjae's stomach flipped, his chest clenching tightly at how close to tears she was. Despite what her words and her choices had put him through emotionally, he still felt like a horrible son for doing this to his umma. Just like he'd felt with the last ultimatum he'd given her...

But then he recalled how often he'd cried, either alone or with someone else there. All the tears spilled because she constantly dismissed his preferences both to his face and behind his back. No matter how much he begged and fought for it, the end result was always the same. Her not listening, and him eventually crying it out because he didn't know what else to do.

Then his mind wandered to the fact that those words and actions of hers upset Daehyun, both directly and indirectly. With that thought in mind, he didn't feel so bad about her being upset. After all, she'd never shown any remorse when she upset them. So why should he tear himself up for upsetting her?

“I... I need to think about it,” Mingjung answered quietly.

“You've had years to think about it. How much more time do you need?” He swallowed the heavy lump in his throat as his umma stared down at her hands. Youngjae turned to Youngwon and Hyunmi, his brother wincing a bit. 'I definitely need to calm down more before I get to the car if I've got Youngwon flinching at me.' So he took another breath in the way he coached Daehyun to whenever his lover's anxious nature came out. “What about you?”

Youngwon's eyes darted between the people in the room before gulping. “What about us?”

“Am I going into the next chapter of my life with a brother? Or without a brother?” Youngjae questioned. “It's your choice.” Of course he'd prefer the former, but with how long it'd been since the two had been around each other, he was accustomed to the latter.

Youngwon and Hyunmi looked at each other, a silent conversation in their eyes, before his brother looked back at him. “With.”

“You'll need my number in order to do that.” Youngjae pulled his phone from his pocket and brought up his contact info before holding it out for them. Once they'd inputted it, he slipped his phone back in its place, then said, “Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a long drive to make.”

“We'll keep in touch.”

Youngjae nodded and turned to leave before looking back at his umma on the couch. “I'll be waiting on your full decision, umma.” With that last declaration, he left.

--

A/N:

Howdy, y'all. Hope y'all have been well! We're counting down, here. Not too much left to go! If I keep up at this rate, I will succeed in finishing this before November!