ɴᴏ ᴍᴀᴛᴛᴇʀ ᴡʜᴏ ɪ ᴡᴀꜱ ʙᴀᴄᴋ ᴛʜᴇɴ

"are you telling me what to do? do you not understand i have the upper hand here? i can
easily fire your father."

soyeon and sooyoung look at each other and their eyes widen.

i glanced at jungkook, he held his head down, as if he was being restricted or a rope held around him that was forcing him to not retaliate.

"sooyoung, do you want to sing a song with me?" soyeon nervously laughs, attempting to move on from this tense atmosphere.

"what do you mean by firing his father?" i curiously stated and soyeon face palms. 
soojung diverts her attention and glares at me, her eyes are always full of detest.
"this is none of your concerns lil sis," she sighs and turns away. 
"i don't need your permission to ask about something," i sneered and began walking towards her.
"ok guys, let's calm down. anyone up for honey butter chips?" sooyoung rhetorically questions, rushing her sentences.
"oh yes! they're especially tasty today, let's eat soojung." soyeon grabs her wrist and tugs her backwards.
"let go !" soojung screams and pushes her, releasing herself from the clasp. soyeon collides with the table and lands on the floor, groaning in pain.
for a moment, she began shooting lasers out of her eyes at me, then stomped out of the rude.
"epitome of a brat." i whispered and tutted. 
"you good?" sooyoung rushes to help soyeon.
"what was that about?" i questioned jungkook, although he seemed to be in no state to answer. 
he looked up, eyes that were once filled w stars had became dark and gloomy, they stared back at me in sadness.
"soojung was right. it's not any of your concerns to just yourself into." he replied, and within a few seconds, also left the room.
i felt a pinch of annoyance, after all that bonding time, i thought we had gotten closer?

that night i lay in bed, rewinding what had happened. everything was going so well and then soojung just drops a bomb?
i groaned and twisted around to find a comfortable position. but at that moment, my phone began to ring and resonated the quiet and resolute apartment.
"mom"
i rolled my eyes and picked it up, "what?" 
"my my, is that how you should be speaking to your mother? how disrespectful." 
that voice was utterly recognisable.
"why did you call me?"
"our parents want the WHOLE family to have dinner at the Quinston Restaurant at 5pm, and when i mean "whole", i refer to non blood related bacteria-ers like you. be there SHARP." 
"ok, have fun because i'm not attending to your stupid £70 for a meal and eat a small filling of half a cooked meat for the rest of the night, thank you."
she giggled,"i'm not here for your response sweetie. in fact, i'll be glad if you don't come, i'll start throwing up before they can even serve the appetizer.
anyways, come or not it's your choice, i'm ending the call. sweet dreams lil sis,"

"by the way, jungkook's coming too,"

she ended the call and left me wondering on whether i should rlly go or not.

who cares? im sure he hates my guts anyways.
but i couldn't help feeling uneasy.

with a final urge of will, i pushed myself up and began rummaging through my closet.
what would be a good outfit to out dress everyone including soojung while simultaneously promoting the statement "i am THAT btch".

after a few minutes of searching for the perfect fit i finally gave in and decided on this.

"done." i sighed and looked at the mirror numerous times to make adjustments to the shirt. 
"wait, why am i doing this?" i scoffed, "it's not like i'm actually going to go,"

by the way, jungkook's coming too

"i guess they made up, huh?"

the next day was literal hell.
every chance soojung got she tried to threaten me from not going but of course, i took no bs from her and simply ignored her. 
after school i quickly went home, changed and then walked outside to wait for mr lee again. he said he had to go somewhere urgently and that it would only take 10 minutes but he's surely taking his fine time.
i looked around and saw the fog engulfing the buildings and fading figures in the distance.
it was quite chilly and the goosebumps were surfacing on my skin. 
"maybe i should've bought a coat," i breathed into my hands to make it warmer.
just then, a car honked and finally i was welcomed into the comfortable heat.
"are you excited, miss?" he asked, sounding a bit brighter than usual.
"do you think i would be?" i retorted.
"it is your first meal with your family after all," he reassured me and that was the first time i realised it.
are they finally accepting me as their family member?
"do you think so?"
"of course, from what i see,"
i stared at my palm in silence.
"c-can i speak to you as an older man for one moment," mr lee began and only confusion surrounded me.
"well, older man sounds creepy. maybe as an uncle?" 
i nonchalantly nod.
he took a deep breath and started,"i'm rlly proud of you, yoojung."
something in my heart had been punched. once and yet it made my whole body shiver.
he cleared his throat,"it's a difficult situation that you're in, anyone can understand that. and i just wanted to tell you that it's alright to fall apart or break down some days, it's normal. so please, don't for even a second think that you're not worth anything bc to me, you were the kindest person i have ever met, young miss."
by now i had started to break into tears.

when we arrived, i got off the car and through the open window,"thank you so much. although it sounded like a very cringe speech, it means a lot to me." 
and with that, i walked into the luxurious restaurant and saw groups of ppl, who could've been easily mistaken to be couples and families. 
a familiar image was pieced together in my mind.
it was abt 3 months ago when i first visited their house. it was beautiful and large.
the ideal house for a family. i gaped around in awe until my eyes landed on it.
it shattered my hopes and every ounce of living happiness inside of me.
it was a family portrait of: my mother, my father and soojung. 
i looked back at my mother in shock and i can still visualise that vile smirk she gave me.

a smile pierced through my face.

oh, what an evil scheming she is