With my arms crossed over my chest and leaning against the doorframe I watched my mother attempt to push the closet in our bedroom out of the way. I had given up on trying to stop her a while back, but I wasn't going to help her either even if she asked me to. "I don't see why this is necessary," I sighed again. I had pointed this out several times already, but she didn't seem to be receptive to reason.

"I need to make sure everything is cleaned properly so my son won't get sick from all the dust in his lungs, now help me move this out of the way."

"Himchan is perfectly capable of cleaning, mom." Once more she ignored me and after watching her practically throw herself against the heavy piece of furniture a couple more times I grabbed her by the elbow and pulled her out of the room despite her protests. I made her sit down on the couch and looked towards the kitchen where Himchan was to make sure he wasn't listening. Then I looked back at my mother who had crossed her arms and I spoke in a low tone so my boyfriend wouldn't hear us: "Himchan is doing his best to make you satisfied, mother. It would be nice if you could at least give him a chance." She scoffed and opened as if to object, but paused when I raised my eyebrows at her. "Please? For me?"

She unfolded her arms and exhaled harshly. "Fine. I'll... I'll try to be a little nicer." I smiled and kissed her on the cheek and ignored the comment she muttered under her breath as I left the room about Himchan not deserving her kindness.

I went to the kitchen where my boyfriend was and walked towards the counter where he was standing and I wrapped my arms around his waist from behind. "Himchan, what are you doing?" I asked with my lips pressed against his ear.

"Polishing the silverware," he mumbled.

My eyebrows pulled together in a frown. "But you've already done that three times today."

"There was a smudge on one of the knives so I figured that it would be better to polish all of them again just to be safe. I don't want your mother to see that they're not clean." I let out a heavy sigh. Then I pulled the items away from him and spun him around so I could press my lips against his. He put his hands on my chest to push me away. "Yongguk, I-" I cut him off with my lips once again and this time I didn't allow him to break the kiss.

I kept kissing him until he stopped resisting. Only then did I pull away. "You need to stop worrying so much, Chan-ah," I whispered as I slipped my hands into his back pockets. "Everything is going to be just fine. Don't worry."

He pouted. "But... but it's your mother. I want her to like me."

"As long as I like you it doesn't matter what my mother thinks. And I like you a whole lot so you have nothing to be afraid of." He giggled when I kissed him on the nose.

"You're so sappy," he said and slapped me on the chest.

"Yes, but you like me this way. Now let's have dinner."

I called for my mother and we sat down in the dining area of the kitchen. Himchan placed our plates in front of us and as soon as he had sat down I took his hand in mine. I noticed that he was shaking. I gave his hand a squeeze. We began eating in silence. My boyfriend was rigid as he awaited my mother's reaction and after a few moments she spoke up: "This is delicious," she said, nodding her head in approval. "Did you make this, Himchan?"

He cowered slightly under her judging gaze. "We, ah, we... we ordered it from my m-mother's restaurant."

"Figures." Himchan hung his head. I shot my mother a glare. She looked away. The silence that followed was tense and it made the air feel stuffy. I thought hard to find something to say, but I couldn't think of anything that wouldn't potentially start World War Three. "The table is beautifully decorated, though," my mother then commented. "Perfect touch with the jasmines. How did you know those are my favorite?"

"Yongguk set the table."

"Oh." My mother looked at me. I just shook my head. She cleared . "So now that you're graduated, Himchan, what do you intend to do?"

"I'm not sure," he muttered. I ran my thumb in circles over the back of his hand. I could tell that he was close to breaking down.

"Well, there must be something you can do with that useless degree of yours." The moment the words had left her, her eyes widened and so did mine. "I-I'm sorry, I didn't... I didn't mean-"

"Himchan's degree is not useless, mother! He worked very hard in school and graduated with almost perfect scores and-"

"Yongguk, stop." Himchan put down his chopsticks and pushed his plate away and then he got up from his seat despite me trying to hold him back. "You don't have to force yourself to be nice. I already know that you hate me." He yanked his hand out of my grip and left the kitchen. I heard the door close in the bedroom not long after.

I sighed and pressed the heels of my hands into my eyes. This wasn't how I wanted this night to go. "Y-Yongguk, I'm sorry, I-"

I cut her off by shaking my head. Then I got up as well. "Let me take you home."

The drive was uncomfortably quiet. None of us spoke a word. I had nothing to say and to be honest I felt angry with my mother. She was being unfair to Himchan and I didn't like it. "Does the boy really think that I hate him?" she asked in a small voice.

"You've made it pretty clear by now that he's far from your favorite person in the world," I muttered. "I honestly don't understand why you treat him like this. He hasn't done anything to deserve it."

"I have my reasons."

"They're all baseless."

"Did you know that he tried to murder me with oranges once?"

"He wasn't trying to murder you. And besides that was more than six years ago, that's too long to hold a grudge, even for you. You can't hold that against him still. There has to be something else."

"I don't like that you kept him a secret from me for so long." I blinked in surprise at her sudden exclaim. She sighed harshly. "Can you imagine what I felt like when I came home early one day and found my son cuddling with the boy I thought was just his best friend and then learned that this had been going on for more than a year already? And I didn't know about it?"

"I'm sorry, I didn't... think you would approve."

"Of course I would, you idiot," she blurted out and slapped my arm. "Anyone who can make my son so happy makes me happy as well, whether it's a boy or a girl is not important. I just don't appreciate that you lied to me about him."

"But that's not Himchan's fault. He wanted me to tell you, I was the one who was afraid." She didn't respond, she just stared out the window. I bit my lip. "I really wish you'd treat him better. I love him a lot and I'm going to keep loving him."

After staying completely quiet for a few moments she sighed. "Am I really that bad?"

"You're kind of horrible."

She nodded. "I'm sorry. I'll try."

*****

A/N: so no the dinner didn't go very well as you can all probably see. I kind of feel like repeating the nice song about yongguk's mother from the author's note in chapter 15, but she's really trying (yeah, this is her trying), so I won't do that. this should also explain why she's such a major biatch. of course she can't hate her precious little yonggukkie for doing something like that so she's just going to hate hime instead even though she doesn't really have a reason to. okay, she's a biatch. that is all.
yeobo will update on friday~