She's not sure how much time had passed, but Irene’s mind was still racing. She carefully untangles herself from Wendy's arms and gives the girl a soft kiss on her temple just before heading downstairs. She eventually finds herself in the kitchen to look for something to drink and she feels a bit awkward having to search for a cup seeing that it wasn't her own house. She reaches for the first cabinet door when a voice makes her freeze.

"Couldn't sleep either, huh?"

"Sorry!" Irene quickly apologizes when she turns and sees the older Son sibling at the kitchen door frame. Her face red, "I was just-uh-looking for a cup."

"Aw, don't sweat it," Taeyeon chuckles. "Great minds must think alike because I just so happen to be quite thirsty as well. Just take a seat and I'll get us some water."

Taeyeon gestures to some chairs along a centered island counter and Irene follows through. It's quiet as Taeyeon moves around the kitchen, just the sounds of glasses clinking and running water filling in the gaps momentarily. The sound of glass hitting the counter in front of Irene is what breaks the silence between them, "Thank you."

"No problem," Taeyeon says happily. They each take sips for a while when the older girl speaks again, "So, is it Wendy, Rosie or my parents?"

"I’m sorry?" Irene asks, taken back at Taeyeon’s bluntness.

"The reason you can't sleep? Is it because of my sister, the Rosie situation or having to meet my parents tomorrow, or today actually?" Taeyeon adjusts as she sees the kitchen clock past midnight.

"Oh," Irene realizes. She takes a moment to think as her fingers fiddle with the cup in between them, "A bit of everything, but more so Wendy, I guess."

It wasn't really a guess though. She decided not to dwell on Rosie and the Son parents tie to Wendy anyways so the answer was obvious. Wendy was once again the reason for her lack of sleep, but this time it wasn't in the context of 'What if?' but rather 'What now?'

“Yeah,” Taeyeon sighs after taking a sip of water. “She makes it easy to worry about her, doesn’t she?” 

“Yup,” Irene pops the “p” sound and after a moment of eye contact with Taeyeon, she releases. “It’s just… before we got here, she was telling me that she was prepared for whatever was going to happen. But, I think she was already so dead set on the fact that your parents, especially your dad, weren’t going to accept us, that I don’t believe she properly had the chance to think about what she’d do if the opposite were to happen. And now here we are.”

Irene takes a sip. “That night when we got here, she was going to tell me more about how she felt, but she kept herself from saying anything else because she probably didn’t want to burden me any further... or maybe she’s avoiding something. And I know that I probably shouldn’t push her to talk about it and sure, I nudged her into talking to Rosie and that seemed to have helped her in some sense, but in the end I still let her decide, you know? So, I’m doing what’s right by not talking about your parents with her, right?”

Taeyeon drums her fingers on the glass cup for a few beats before answering, "If there's one thing that I know absolutely for sure about Wendy, it's that she is selfless. Once you become someone close to her, it’s tough to break that connection. It’s even difficult for her to convince herself to stop caring for someone. And as a result, as you've mentioned, it leads to her not wanting to be a burden to anyone. But by her not saying anything, that only increases the burden on herself and at some point it'll become too much for her to bear."

Taeyeon reaches out to place her hand on Irene's, "Believe me, I'm glad to hear that you don't push her, but at some point we're going to have to. And between you and me, something tells me she trusts you a bit more."

When Irene doesn’t reply, Taeyeon continues, “Listen, my parents aren’t going to arrive until noon. Let’s try to get some rest so you can wake up early enough in case you want to talk to her about it. It’s probably best to do it before they get here anyways.”

Taeyeon gets up from her chair and pats Irene’s shoulder lightly before putting her cup in the sink and heading upstairs. Irene decides to stay for a bit longer, trying to take in Taeyeon’s words and find comfort in them. Once she finally feels as calm as she could get, she makes her way back to Wendy’s room. When she opens the door, she can’t help but feel a bit more relaxed seeing how peaceful her Ravenclaw looks as she sleeps. Irene slowly climbs back into bed and as she lays down, she lifts Wendy’s arm to wrap around herself, snuggling into her girlfriend’s body.

Despite the fact that Wendy was sleeping, Irene feels the Ravenclaw’s arms pull her in closer. The act makes a thought flash through the Slytherin’s mind before she fell asleep.

Everything will be okay. Everything will go as planned. It has to.

----- Dec. 30th -----

“What do you want me to say, Irene?”

“Anything,” Irene responds calmly. “I know there’s something on your mind. Something about your parents.”

“I have nothing to say about them.”

The couple are currently in Wendy’s room with Irene sitting with her legs crossed on the bed while Wendy was looking for clothes to change into. As soon as the Slytherin woke up, she decided that she was going to talk to Wendy about whatever she was hiding. In terms of how she decided to approach the subject, she ended up going with the same tactic for when she was going to tell Joy and Jennie about their, at the time, fake relationship. She was just going to be blunt about it and hope for the best. Which leads them to now.

“I think you do. You had something on your mind the night we arrived and after our date. It was evident on your face, so don’t even try to deny it,” Irene continues to push. 

From the opposite side of the room, she sees Wendy stop rummaging through her drawers. Without turning around to face her, Wendy speaks with a defeated tone, “I… I don’t want to add any more of my emotional weight than I already have on you, okay? I’m sure you’re already feeling so much pressure about meeting my parents today, so I don’t want to make you worry more than you have to.”

Irene sees Wendy’s head drop and so she gets off of the bed and approaches her girlfriend, hugging her from behind and resting her head on the Ravenclaw’s back. “Wen, I’m not asking you to give me some of your weight. I’m just trying to help you realize that you don’t have to hold it all at once. You’re allowed to let some of it go.”

After a few seconds, Wendy lets out a deep breath before turning around in Irene’s arms, “Let’s sit, then?”

Irene nods then releases Wendy from her hold so she could lead them to sit down on the bed. The Ravenclaw stays quiet at first, fiddling with her fingers as if to give herself time to straighten her thoughts then looks at her. 

“When Taeyeon told me that their opinions changed, I mean you saw me, I-I couldn’t believe it,” Wendy says. “To be honest, when it comes to my mom, I actually wasn’t really that surprised that she accepts that part of me now. Like, something in me knew that she’d come around one day, if that makes sense?”

Irene nods, staying silent to let her girlfriend continue. 

"But for my dad..." Wendy looks down. “I lied to you.”

The Slytherin’s brows furrow.

"I want to hate him so bad. Everything in the universe is telling me that I should hate him. After all this time, I really don't want to care about what he thinks or what he has to say. But deep down I know that I do. He and I… we were so close back then. Like two peas in a pod. And I know I played it off and made it seem like all he ever cared about was quidditch for me, but even off the field we'd still have fun together. There were days when he'd even let me skip quidditch practice and we would get ice cream instead. And for the first few years I was playing, he would always remind me that I should only play if I truly enjoy it and not only because people tell me or expect me to. It wasn't always quidditch for him. He was genuinely a great father to me and Taeyeon up until… you know."

"But even after everything he put me through, I hate the fact that there's still a part of me that wants his approval. I want him to meet you, get to know you and say that you are the one for me. Am I crazy for wanting that despite all that he’s done these past years?"

It was then when Irene heard the Ravenclaw sniffle and without hesitation, she pulled the girl into her arms and immediately felt Wendy wrap her arms around her in return.

“Do you… do you really think he changed his mind?” Wendy’s voice had come out frail as she met her eyes, causing Irene to pout in response. She had never seen Wendy so vulnerable. Her once confident Ravenclaw was now mush in her arms.

To be quite honest, Irene was scared to give an answer.

"Hey kids!" Taeyeon's muffled voice breaks through as she knocks on the door. "Sorry to burst god knows what is going on in there, but I'm not about to prepare lunch all by myself so please head your butts downstairs as soon as you can, thanks!"

At that, Wendy lifts herself from Irene's arms, wipes her eyes and looks to her girlfriend with a smile, "I guess we shouldn't make her wait any longer, hm? "

They get ready silently and just before they leave the room, Wendy pulls Irene in for a delicate kiss. "Thank you," the Ravenclaw whispers as they part, then they head downstairs as they bask in the calm before the storm.

--

The three girls were sitting at the fully set dining table as they quietly waited to hear the fateful doorbell. They knew it was only a matter of time until the Son's would arrive seeing that their mom had texted Taeyeon that they were almost home. 

When Irene and Wendy had come downstairs, the trio had been lively all morning as they chatted and laughed while making preparations. Irene was even able to signal to Taeyeon with a thumbs up that she managed to have the important conversation with Wendy and that it went well. And so their morning was serene. 

But now, it was like the atmosphere shifted a complete 180 when Taeyeon read the text aloud.

As they wait in anticipation, Irene reaches out to intertwine her and Wendy's hand and gives it a light squeeze. It was only seconds later when Taeyeon's phone began to ring. 

"Hey mom," the former Beauxbaton answers. "Okay.. Yeah.. We'll be right out!"

When she hangs up, Taeyeon stands and looks at her sister with an expression that was failing to hide her nervousness, "They want us to help with their luggages. They're pulling up now."

"Oh-um, a-alright," Wendy stutters as she too gets up, letting Irene's hand go at the same time. "Do you just-um want to wait here, babe? Or no, maybe mom and dad might think it's rude that she didn't help- but then it might be better to wait and introduce you after the fact-"

"Wendy," Taeyeon interrupts. "Breathe. For now, Irene, you'll wait inside. Mom will understand with her not helping since she's our guest right now and she'd feel bad for making Irene do that. And it'll definitely be easier to just let them meet her after bringing in all their luggage. I'll keep them outside talking while you bring the bags in. After that, we'll all come in together and you can introduce her then, okay?"

"Okay," Wendy calms after hearing her sister's plan and the two make their way outside to greet their parents who had just pulled up in the driveway. 

Irene's heart begins to race as she watches the family interact from the window. The daughters hug their mom, Taeyeon hugs her dad and of course, Wendy shakes his hand. Looking at them now, the parents don't appear too intimidating, but Irene isn't naïve enough to think that she should let her guard down because of it.

Taeyeon's plan seems to go smoothly as it was only Wendy who was carrying the first of the two rounds of luggages to bring inside the house. Once inside, Wendy looks at her girlfriend with a scowl, "She tricked me. I can't believe I let her trick me into being the only one to carry all this."

Irene stifles a laugh and gives her a quick kiss, "I know, baby, but you know what? You look so hot and strong while doing it. Now go back out before they wonder what's taking you so long."

Wendy smiles as they share one more quick kiss, "This is why I like you, Bae."

"Not really like me?" Irene teases Wendy's old words as said girl heads out the door.

"You're going to be the death of me, you know?" Wendy laughs before rushing out the door.

Irene's glad she managed to make her girlfriend smile seeing that the Ravenclaw's nerves were high after seeing her parents. She just hopes that they'll still be able to see that smile as she heads back to the window and watches the Son sisters head towards the house with their parents on their trail.

A/N: Slowly but surely the time to meet the Son parents approaches!

I know this chapter is relatively short and I think the next few will be as well. Again this is because school is currently on the brain but I still want to give you guys an update at least once a month!

I was also working on, and now finished, a 16k words one-shot too so that's kinda where my writing focus has been on recently. I just needed a 'small' switch-up to keep my creative flow going! This will be uploaded sometime next week so keep your eyes peeled ;)

Thanks for reading and as usual lemme know your thoughts bc I love reading all of your comments! I know I don't really reply to comments, but trust me, I read them all and they keep me encouraged to continue writing <3

P.S. Go give Ms. Twice's newest album Formula of Love a listen! It's so goood!!

- S (@rv_twice5 on twitter)