They go back to their bedroom after asking Eunbi to let the others know they will be skipping lunch, the excuse being they needed to catch up on sleep. Jessica made sure to lock the door this time, no need for another interruption.

“What are you going to do about the bet?” 

“I don’t know,” Jessica sits on the bed facing Tiffany, “I could confront them directly and a big part of me wants to do that right now, but I am not even sure if I want to hear what they have to say.”

“So you’ll just pretend you don’t know anything and keep appearances while we are here?”

“It depends on them, I won’t put up with any more condescending comments in front of you. If they behave, I can be civil for now and talk to my parents after we are done with the festivities.”

“And if they don’t?”

“I love my family. Chae set up our meeting after I told her I was thinking of not coming this year, she knows how much I love them and because of that she found a solution that allowed me to come here without the weight of not being in a serious relationship. The thing is, I don’t care how much I love them, I won’t allow them to have me as the joke of the family.”

“I understand how hard situations involving family can be. I never told you why I didn’t have anywhere to be for Christmas,” Tiffany rests her chin on her hand, “I was in a serious relationship earlier this year, a few months ago my parents asked me if I was going to visit for the holidays and I said I wouldn’t.”

“You were going to spend it with your partner?”

 “Yeah, and a week later, my girlfriend broke up with me. My social circle was deeply connected to her so I ended up with very few friends of my own and with my plans cancelled. I didn’t want to tell my parents about it because the reason I gave them for not going was not exactly true.”

“You didn’t tell them about staying with your girlfriend?”

“I used some bs about the stress of travelling at this time of the year, they didn’t even know I had a girlfriend. My parents gave me reason to believe they wouldn’t accept my uality when I was younger, so I kept this private.”

“But… you said you were going to tell them about us.” 

“And I did.”

“And?”

“I wasn’t sure how to come up with the subject, during a call my father asked what were my plans for Christmas so I told him ‘I’m going out of town with Jessica.’ and then he asked some questions about you.”

“You didn’t tell him about our relationship, did you?”

Tiffany shakes her head, “My whole life I was too afraid to tell my parents whenever I dated women, and in the end I didn’t have to, he guessed it.”

“How?”

“He told me that they suspected it, but since I didn’t talk about my relationships with women, they never felt they had the opportunity to say something. I don’t think they are the kind to put up pride flags around when I go visit, but compared to what I was expecting it was a whole lot better.”

“I had no idea, I didn’t even ask you how it went when you said you were going to tell them. I was so obsessed with my own problems that I… I’m sorry, Fany.”

Tiffany moves to sit beside Jessica, “You had no way of knowing, we all have our own problems. My point in telling you this is that I tortured myself for years with something I could have solved with one phone call. Maybe you can find a way of fixing things with your family as well.”

“You think I should talk to them?”

“I think it is worth a try. I know you don’t ever say how you truly feel because you don’t want to hurt them, but they need to understand boundaries.”

“You’re right. It was bad enough to hear their unsolicited opinions, but I always thought that is how old people are, you know? I didn’t want to disrespect them, but no one thought about disrespecting me when they bet on my life.”

“Why do you think they did it?”

“To be honest? Kyungho and I never had the best relationship, when we lived abroad his parents never let him visit so we basically didn’t meet until he was a teenager, and by then he thought it was funny to annoy me. I guess he still sees our relationship like what it was 20 years ago.”

“Jess, don’t get me wrong, but you keep trying to defend your family no matter what they do. You can’t let them walk over you like that.”

“I’m not trying to defend anyone, I just…” She can’t continue. Tiffany is right, she keeps going on and on trying to justify that they don’t mean to hurt her, but it’s not like their intentions change the results. “You’re right.” She whispers in a shaky voice.

“Come here,” Tiffany hugs her, pulling both down to lie in bed, “I’m here, I won’t let them hurt you.”

Jessica cries in Tiffany’s arms, tears she had been keeping to herself for so long. Always thinking she was overreacting since everyone told her it is just how parents and grandparents are, that you just have to ignore them and go on with your life. 

Once she calms down enough to speak, she says in a small voice, “You are the first person to make me feel like it’s okay to confront them. Thank you.”

“Jess, you don’t owe them anything. Not to your parents, grandparents, and especially not to everyone else. I know a lot of older people think the way they do, but that’s not your problem. Life would be a lot easier if people understood that being related to someone doesn’t give you right over their lives.”

“What would you do if your parents didn’t accept you? If when you told them about me, your father started yelling at you or something.”

“I would be upset, of course, but my life doesn’t depend on their approval. If he yelled at me for being queer, I would cut him off until he decided to apologise, same with my mother. It would hurt, but it’s better than having to submit myself to conditional love.”

“But you hid this part of you for so long, you were clearly afraid of their reaction, how can you say that you would cut them off?”

“I was afraid, but not exactly of their reaction, I was afraid of what I would have to do if they reacted badly. I didn’t want to hurt my relationship with my parents, so I avoided the topic.”

“So why now? You could have said you were spending the holidays with a friend.”

“I don’t know, it just didn’t feel right to lie.” She shrugs, “Are you feeling better now?”

“A little.”

“Wanna go downstairs to eat?”

“Can we stay here? I mean, if you’re not hungry, of course. But I thought we could use some sleep.”

“As long as you want, princess.” Tiffany kisses her forehead.

As the afternoon comes, Jessica wakes up, she realises they had never slept together before, at least not in a bed. She feels good waking up in the other woman’s arms, their legs entangled, a mess of blonde mixed with her brown hair. She can not even remember the last time she felt so warm and happy when waking up, not even sure if she ever felt like this before. Tiffany found a place in her life faster than anyone ever did, she has become so essential to Jessica that it is hard to believe they did not know each other only a few weeks prior to now.

The problems with her family come creeping up to her thoughts, quickly disrupting the peace of the moment. Jessica makes a choice.

For years they have been saying what they want about her life, giving unsolicited advice, talking about her choices when she is not present to defend herself. And during all of this, she kept walking on eggshells around them, trying to take it as their way of showing affection, thinking it was something she had to accept since she couldn’t change who they are. This is going to change. Today.

Being careful not to wake Tiffany up, Jessica gets out of bed. From the corridor she hears the faint sounds of chatter coming from downstairs, her family must be in the sunroom, they usually eat there this time of the year. She walks silently, trying to pick up on what they are saying.

“... that Jessica was like this. Her relationship with Tyler was obviously just to keep up appearances.” Her mother says in a condescending tone, to which Sooyoung replies.

“Kyung told me she was different, even as a girl.”

“Yes, he is right. I think the pressure of keeping this from us made her become emotionally distant.”

She feels her blood boiling, her own mother saying these things behind her back. From what she heard it’s only the two of them in the room, her initial plan was to talk to both her parents first, but a new opportunity arises. Making a point to make noise so they know someone is coming.

“Oh, hi, sweetie. Eunbi told me you were going to rest.”

“Mum, Sooyoung,” She nods to the both of them, “I did, Tiffany is still asleep. Mum, can we talk? In private.”

“Of course, dear.”

“I’ll go see if Kyungho has finished his shower.” Sooyoung walks inside the house, closing the door behind her.

“Come here, my dear.” Her mother pats the couch, “I feel like we haven’t talked in ages.”

Jessica sits beside her mother, “I know about the bet.”

The smile on the older woman’s face disappears instantly, but she tries to recover, “What are you talking about?”

“I know you and half of the family placed bets on my love life, like I was some sort of joke to entertain all of you.” Her words drop like acid, no one in her life has ever experienced this level of rage coming from her.

Mrs. Jung gulps, she attempts to put on a fake smile, but fails at showing anything other than discomfort, “It was never like that, my love. You know that we all love you, we would never do anything with ill intent. It’s just a silly little thing to keep us, old people, from talking about politics. You know how your dad and your aunt fight about this all the time.” 

“I am going to make something very clear,” Jessica spits her words, “not only to you, but I will make sure to talk to each person who took part in this. My life is none of your business, what I do with my life is not some ‘silly little thing’ for you to talk about behind my back. My whole ing life I’ve been putting up with your ty comments and I’ve always put a smile on my face and pretended it was not hurting me because when I told you to stop I was treated as the ungrateful child. The girls tried to defend me and all of you dismissed them as if they were misbehaving children. This stops now.”

“Jessica, dear, I…”

“I am not finished.” She raises her voice slightly, cutting her mother off, “I thought that maybe I was wrong, you know? So I brought Tiffany with me. I honestly believed that if I did what you so loudly proclaimed to want for me, I could have a little peace for this year. Eunbi and Yerin got engaged, I love those girls so much, and I wanted us to have a happy time celebrating them. I thought that if I was in a relationship all of you could finally focus on something other than me, but I got here just a few hours ago and look what you’ve done already.”

“I-I have a right to say this… Jessica, I am-I am your mother.” 

“Being my mother doesn’t give you the right to judge me. The same applies to dad, to grandpa and grandma, and especially to my aunts, uncles and ing Kyungho and Sooyoung. I heard you both talking earlier. You think I dated Tyler to hide my uality? Really?”

“We-well, dear, what else was I supposed to think?”

“I’m not even a lesbian. I loved Tyler and when I didn’t love him anymore I ended the relationship. I didn’t fall in love with anyone after him so I didn’t have another relationship. All of this is my personal life and I don’t need your opinion on it.”

“B-but… you have Tiffany now.”

“Tiffany is Chaelin’s friend, she introduced us and we decided to get into a relationship so I could bring her here with me.” Jessica’s anger is beyond her control, she doesn’t realise what she said until it’s too late, “Do you see how much your attitude ed up my life? I pretended to date someone just to see if you would stop harassing me. I’m done with this. Do me a favour and tell the others what we talked about, I’m going out.” 

“Jessica, come here, I…”

Her mother’s words are cut off by the door closing. Jessica runs upstairs, finding Tiffany awake sitting by the window with a worried expression.

“What happened? I heard you yelling.” She walks to Jessica, placing both hands on her shoulders.

“I talked to my mother. Can you drive me somewhere? I don’t wanna be here anymore.”

“Yeah, of course. Anywhere you want.”

A few minutes later they are sitting in the parking lot of a fast food restaurant, eating burgers and drinking cheap hot chocolate. Jessica told everything to Tiffany, but the last part has her worried about the reaction she is going to get.

“I was so angry… so I-I ended up telling her that our relationship was a ruse to get them to stop. When I realised what I said, it was too late to go back.” She looks down at her cup, one hand playing with the plastic spoon, “I couldn’t handle how she reduced my only serious relationship to me trying to hide I was a lesbian. I’m sorry, I understand if you don’t want to stay anymore, I can drive you back to Seoul.”

Tiffany stays quiet, her food put aside, her eyes staring unfocused at the concrete of the parking lot.

“Please say something.”

“How do you feel about me?”

“What?”

“You need me to repeat the question?”

“No… I,” She clears , “I like you, you are one of my favourite people in the world.”

She takes a deep breath, “But do you like me as a friend or would you date me?”

“Aren’t we dating already?” Jessica tries to ease the tension that built up since the start of this conversation.

“Don’t do that.” Tiffany looks at her for the first time in what feels like ages, “Would you date me for real? No more pretending to date.”

She has been thinking about this since Chaelin asked her about what they would do after the family trip. At first she thought it was just something the other put in her head, but the thoughts never left her. There is something special about Tiffany, something she hasn’t felt since… Tyler. The realisation hits her with such a strength that it’s almost as if she was punched in the gut by her own brain. 

    It makes sense. She likes being with Tiffany, she misses her when they don’t see each other, she became the first person Jessica thinks to talk to when something happens, she hated the idea that that Henry guy was trying to get with Tiffany. Somewhere in the last few weeks she started falling for the woman, but she was stressing so much about the trip that she kept this locked away. After talking to her mother there is nothing keeping her from these feelings anymore.

    “Forget about it. I don’t know what I was thinking, you’re straight, and…”

    “I never said anything about being straight.”

    “What? But… you said you only dated men?”

    “Tiff, I dated a few guys until university and then I only had dates that my parents set up for me. I never said I was only attracted to men, I just didn’t have much of a dating life.”

    “So… when you said you had casual relationships? Were those also with men or…?”

    “Men, women, non-binary people. I never cared much about a person’s gender. I just didn’t include my one night stands when you asked me if I only dated men, because, well…”

    “They weren’t dates.”

    “Exactly.”

    “This… This is a lot to process.” Tiffany looks lost, she starts eating her chips again, just to have something to do with her hands.

    Jessica knows that if she doesn’t say something now, she might not get the courage to do so later. She takes a couple of deep breaths and starts talking, her voice sounding a lot more confident than she feels, “And to answer your previous question. I think we could remove the ‘exclusively platonic’ rule of our relationship.”

    Tiffany chokes on a piece of potato, coffing a few times and getting tears in her eyes. Once she recovers, she asks with a slightly hoarse voice, “Are you serious?”

    “Yeah, I’ve been thinking about it for a while. But only if you want, of course.”

    “Jesus ing Christ, Jessica. Are you really not sure if I want to date you?”

    “Well, hmm, no? How would I know?” The fake confidence completely gone from her voice.

    “You are so bad at this. It’s impressive how terrible you are at noticing how someone has been trying to flirt with you for weeks.” She sees the confusion in Jessica’s face, “I was interested in you from the first time we met. The whole reason I was so upset this morning was because you told me last night that after the trip we wouldn’t have to continue dating.”

    “Oh… oh, I…” Jessica suddenly sees a lot of the things that happened between them from another angle, “That’s why you kept saying I was clueless.”

    “Finally you got it. I thought I would have to send you a formal letter letting you know I was courting you.”

    “And you still want to date me?”

    “What can I say? I think you are adorable even when you miss my attempts to seduce you.”

    “I’ll try to be more attentive.”

    “Oh, so you want to be seduced by me?”

    “Shut up. Don’t tease me.”

    “Make me shut up then.” Tiffany winks at her.

    “I told you not to tease me.” Jessica mumbles before pulling Tiffany into a kiss.

    If Jessica felt like Tiffany’s hugs made her happy, this kiss is a feeling she doesn’t have words for. Tiffany’s cold fingertips softly touching her skin, the taste of her lips, it’s an overwhelming feeling of euphoria. For the first time Jessica didn’t overthink, she lost her ability to create rational thoughts, her brain was filled by Tiffany and the sensations she made her feel. The intensity of it took her by surprise, having built a relationship before this moment made it that much more intense than anything she ever experienced.

A.N: It finally happened, I'm crying tears of joy over this kiss. 2/3 of this chapter were written in one sitting while I was one with my computer, hopefully I didn't disappoint you guys.