There was a loud knocking that shocked me out of dream land and woke up to look for my phone. After smacking the bedside table a few times to look for my phone, I found it and checked the time, only to blanche at the digits that popped up. 7am?! Really?  I placed my phone back on my table and got up from my bed and rubbed my eyes.

“Come in” I mumbled, or at least I think I did. It sounded incoherent but the person on the other side got the message and opened the door. 

“Good morning Miss Hana!” I flinched at the loud greeting and looked up to see one of the maids stand at the entry with a smile. I smiled back and waved her in but looked at my alarm clock to check the time again and felt my soul weeping at the early wake up call. 

“Ahh, good morning. It’s quite early to wake up, isn’t it?” Please let me go back to bed! It’s too early for this!

“Your mother had me wake you up to get you ready for this evening.” THIS EARLY? I sighed and nodded my head and went into my bathroom to take a shower. Maybe I can waste an hour in here. 

After an hour of just sitting in the bathroom and messing with my phone, I heard a knock on my bathroom door. 

“Miss? Are you done with your bath?” Should I say yes? I had been finished for the past thirty minutes but figured if I didn’t leave now, my mother would personally come in to make sure I was done. 

“Yeah! Give me a minute!” I wore a pair of sweatpants and a hoodie and left the bathroom to see my whole room transform into a mini saloon. I blinked and went back into the bathroom and closed the door abruptly. I leaned against it and counted to ten before opening the door again. Ok, yeah. I’m not dreaming. I stepped out of the bathroom, which one of the maids noticed and ushered me over. 

“Your mother had asked us to tell you to meet her in the dining room.” I nodded my head and left my room as quickly as I possibly could. There were voices coming from the first floor, so I tried to silently walk down to see who had come. My feet slipped and I almost fell back, but caught the railing in time. I heaved a sigh and stood up again. Thank goodness the stairs are covered by a wall. I got to the bottom without slipping anymore and peaked around the corner to see my siblings sitting with my family in the living room. I ran out of my hiding spot and composed myself before letting my presence known. 

“Good morning everyone!” I smiled and waved but stumbled back when I felt two pairs of arms wrap around my waist. “Hey guys!” 

“Aunt Hana! Is it true you're getting married?” Jeno asked. Jaemin had a frown on his face and shook his head.

“Aunt Hana what is getting married?” Jaemin’s frown became more deep as he thought more about his question.

“I..uh..well..” I looked at my family for some help but they all looked away. I wrinkled my nose and ushered the kids with me to the kitchen where there were snacks I could give them. Once we were in the kitchen, I took two glasses from the cabinets and went to the fridge to get chocolate milk, which was always stored in case they ever visited. Our kitchen was designed by my mother to have a marble island in the middle of the kitchen. On one side was the sink and cabinets that held all of our tableware. The boys sat themselves on the high chairs that were on that side while the fridge was on the other side where I was standing to get their chocolate milk. I gave them their chocolate milk and leaned on my arms against the island and carefully thought about how to answer their questions, or if I even should. 

“Aunt Hana?” I blinked out of my thoughts and looked at Jeno, who had a head tilted. Aww you adorable child. I smiled at him before sighing and stood up straight. I opened up the cookie jar that was next to me and slid over a cookie each to the boys. If your parents saw, they would have my head. I’m such a hypocrite. I shook my head and leaned on the marble again. 

“Getting married is when...you....uhh” I heaved another sigh and raked my hands through my hair. “There are many steps in life that people have to go through to get where they need to be.”

“Is it the same for everyone?” I shook my head at Jeno’s question and gestured at them both. 

“You both are brothers, but your lives are not the same. Your steps could be different than your brothers to get where you want to go. In my life, marriage is the next step I have to take to get where I need to go.”

“But what is marriage?” Jaemin asked again and I scratched my eyebrow. 

“Marriage is when two people have to get together and live together and start a family?” Why did you phrase it as a question? 

“Just like your mom and dad, aunt Hana is going to be with someone. Like me and your uncle Doyoung.” I turned towards my right to see Anna walk in and stop right next to me. 

“But why is she doing that? She is already living with grandma and grandpa.” Anna looked at me and I looked back at her before looking at the kids. 

“I can’t live with grandma and grandpa forever guys.” I was running out of ideas on how to answer them and they were not at all satisfied with my answers.

“It’s a part of growing up. Who knows, maybe you might have to do it too.” I laughed at Anna’s comment and the kids shook their heads.

“Eww no. I don’t want to get married. Do you Jeno?” Jeno was quick to shake his head and Anna and I laughed at the twins reactions. 

“But why are you guys here so early?” I looked towards Anna, who turned to face me.

“Mom invited us all over to get read together for today.”

“I don’t understand. This is only a charity ball. Why is mother having us do this as if we are doing a family function? This would have made more sense if she was doing all of this next Saturday.” Anna shook her head and shrugged her shoulders.

“It’s our mother we’re talking about. Since when is she not this extra about having things done her way.” I sighed and shook my head and turned towards the kids to see that they had finished their snack. 

“Come on, let's go back out.” I waved at them to follow me and Anna walked behind them back towards the living room. “Mother why are we up so early. This ball isn’t even until 7.” I sat down on the seat next to her and she patted my knees. 

“ I know, but I was excited about gathering the family together. It’s been so long since we actually had a family gathering like this.” 

“We do it twice a year.” I was quick to remind her but she shook her head.

“That’s with the whole family. I want to just be us. Plus I miss seeing your siblings around.” What did my siblings say to them? It’s so weird  having them be so nice all the time now. I glanced at the clock and noticed it was nearing 9 and glanced towards the others. 

“Why don’t we sit for dinner?” I felt my stomach quench and glanced at my dad, who was looking at the others. I leaned in towards my mother to whisper into her ear.

“Can I just skip? I don’t feel that good.” mother frowned at my question and looked at me with worry.

“How about some fruits? Or tea? I can ask the chef to make some tea.” I really didn’t want anything but I figured they weren’t about to let me completely skip the meal without eating something. 

“Do we have jasmine tea?” my mother nodded and stood up to go to the kitchen while the others followed my dad towards the dining room. I heard my phone go off and checked to see it was a text from Johnny.

“Whatever you do, please don’t pick up any calls from this phone!” Huh? I blinked at the text, but before I could question back what he meant, I got a call from his number. He told me not to pick it up but.. I heard the clacking of shoes and turned in my seat to see my mom come back. I saw her eyes glance towards my ringing phone and jumped towards me. 

“Why aren't you answering your fiance?!” Before I could stop her, she swiped the answer button and held the phone towards my ear. 

“Mother wait!” I tried to grab the phone but my hands were being flimsy. I finally caught a hold of the phone and stood up from the couch.

“Answer him!” I ran out of the room to a nearby hallway and noticed it was quiet on the other end.

“Hello?” I waited a few seconds and then checked my phone to see if the call was going on and it was. There still wasn’t a response so I tried again. “Johnny?”

“Hello sister-in-law!” I heard multiple voices and checked the caller ID one more time. 

“Ahh...hello?” I heard a crash on the other side followed by sounds of running and laughing.

“Give me back the phone!” That voice I recognized. 

“Mark run!” I soon heard a door close and a few panting sounds.

“Hello?” Should I hang up?

“Hi! This is Mark. I’m one of Johnny’s friends.”

“Hello Mark. How are you?” You really need to learn how to start a conversation. 

“I’m good sister-in-law! How are you?” I smiled at the question but felt a little awkward about the whole thing. Sister-in-law?

“I’m well, but please call me Hana.” 

Johnny’s POV

Johnny banged on the bathroom door while Jaehyun and Ten were laughing while trying to hold him back from breaking the door down. 

“Oh come on, let us talk to her.” Jaehyun replied from his right and Ten was enjoying the horrified face Johnny was making. Johnny was glad his parents had left early in the morning to do what they had to do. His three friends showed up about fifteen minutes ago with breakfast and smiles, something that should have given him warning bells because his friends rarely visited his place in fear of seeing his parents. They were all sitting in the living room when his friends questioned him a lot about you and was asking if he had talked to you at all since Wednesday. He had mentioned talking to you Wednesday night and then they were asking him about where his phone was. He got the hint and ran up the stairs to his room to hide his phone and he heard the pair of feet chasing after him. He was able to send you a quick text before they had stolen his phone and called you. Ten was trying to hold him back from reaching for the phone and they all screamed out a greeting to you before Jaehyun pushed the phone into Mark’s hand and yelled at him to run. 

After about five minutes struggling, the door opened and Mark came out smirking. He gave the phone back to Johnny and made a run for it to hide behind Ten. Johnny noticed the call was still going and held up the phone to his ear hesitantly.

“Hello?” He was surprised to head the laughter on the other end and glared at Mark, who gave a cheeky smile back. 

“You have very entertaining friends Johnny! I’m excited to meet them tonight.” The phone wasn’t on speaker, but the guys were able to hear you and looked at Mark, who shrugged. 

“I’m glad. Um, what did he exactly tell you?” Johnny heard you laugh and felt himself smiling at the sound, before frowning again at the thought that you might be laughing at him. 

“He was telling me about how they are all excited to meet tonight and how they have a lot of stories to share. But there was one thing I couldn’t quite catch. He said Jaehyun wanted to meet my brother personally? Was what I heard correct?” 

“Mark why would you mention that?!” Jaehyun yelled at Mark with red ears and Johnny smirked at the duo before returning to the phone.

“I will let my brother know.” He knew you heard the yelling and walked away from the trio to hear you properly.

“Sorry for the abrupt call..and the weirdness.” You had laughed at that and he smiled.

“No worries. It was fun hearing everything. I was being honest when I said I wanted to meet them. You would be surprised at the weirdness you're getting yourself into also. My family isn’t all what we seem.” Johnny had to laugh at that and glanced at his friends when he noticed that they had gotten quiet. He saw them staring at him and he raised his eyebrow.  “Are they still there? It's gotten quiet.” Johnny snorted and rolled his eyes. 

“Yeah, they're still here. Would you like to say hi?”

“Sure!” You chirped and Johnny the speaker phone and held it out to them.

“Hi Hana!” The trio yelled and she laughed.

“Hi everyone! I hope I get to meet you all tonight!” 

“Same here! We have a lot of stories to share with you.” Ten laughed and the others yelled out noises of agreement. Johnny rolled his eyes before taking the phone back and took you off of the speaker.

“I’ll see you later?” You made a noise of agreement and said a soft bye before hanging up. Johnny sighed before turning towards his friends with irritation clear on his face. 

“Happy?” His friends all smirked and nodded their heads before he shook his head at them. “Was this the only reason you all came so early? What if my parents were here?”

“Simple, we would kidnap you.” Jaehyun shrugged and Johnny let out a tired sigh. The day had only started and he was already exhausted. 

“Now, how do we waste time till 5?” Mark looked around towards the guys, seeing as they had nothing to do till five to get ready and leave their respective houses by 6.

“Where are your parents?” Johnny shrugged in response to Ten and looked at his phone. 

“Should we just watch tv?” Everyone shrugged at that and spread around the room and the tv in Johnny’s room to waste time.