I must have dozed off with Yongguk because when I opened my eyes I found his mother kneeling down by my bed and shaking me. I whined softly and rolled away from her, throwing an arm over my boyfriend’s sweaty body. “Himchan? Look at me?” She kept her voice down, she probably didn’t want to wake her son up. That was probably the only reason she hadn’t yelled at me for letting her son get pneumonia. “Please?”

Even though it was the last thing I wanted I rolled over again so I could look at my boyfriend’s mother. I needed to thank her for cleaning up my apartment for me anyway. That had been uncharacteristically nice. “Yes ma’am?” I could only find the energy to open one eye, if it had been anyone else I would have feared that I appeared rude but there was nothing else I could do to this woman. She hated me completely.  There was nothing left for me to do.

“Come with me?” She grabbed my arm, my heart nearly stopped. I wasn’t nearly awake enough for this kind of traumatic event. “I’m going to take you out for lunch.” She pulled on my gently until I gave up and complied. She handed me my crutches and stared at me as I grabbed my keys and wallet. “We’ll just let Yongguk sleep for a little bit longer.”

“Are you going to kill me?”

She chuckled a bit and it only served to make me fear for my life even more. I was going to have to keep a very close watch over my meal lest she poison it. “I just want to talk to you.”

I put up a feeble fight but got into Yongguk’s mother’s car anyway. It was probably safest if I went with her. We drove in silence and I stared out the window until we arrived at a restaurant Yongguk and I could never have afforded to go to. His mother spent money at an impressive rate. She always had.

She helped me out of the car, ignoring glances from a couple of people on the streets sent her. “You’re going to be around for a long time Himchan.” She told me as if it was something I didn’t know already. “My son won’t let me be in his life if you and I can’t get along.” We were led to a table and she helped me sit down. “We’ve never had a real conversation.”

“That’s because you hate me.” I mumbled, dropping my gaze. “You only talk to me when I’ve done something wrong… I’m sorry Yongguk got pneumonia…”

“These things happen, Himchan. I’m not going to yell at you for it.” She ordered a bottle of wine and some sort of food I had never heard of. “I’m sorry for how I’ve been through all these years.” I had no idea how to respond to her words. This was the weirdest situation I had ever been in. I did my best to be discrete and glanced around the room for cameras. This had to be some sort of joke. She hated me. “I shouldn’t have treated you that way.”

I shrugged my shoulders. I really just wanted to go home and take care of my sick boyfriend. I shouldn’t have left him alone. He needed to be taken care of. “I think I should go take care of Yongguk, Ma’am… It was a bad idea to leave him all alone…”

“I called his friend Hanhae. He’s there.” She smiled – only causing me even more worry – as she instructed the waiter to pour me a glass of wine. I didn’t want wine but now I didn’t have a choice. I would have to drink it. “We need to talk.”

“Why do you hate me?” I bit my lip, keeping my eyes on the wine glass. Apparently she drank white wine. Yongguk hated white wine. He preferred liquor- a trait that had rubbed off on me. “I’ve tried to make you like me. But you’ve hated me since you found out I wasn’t just Yongguk’s best friend. I’m sorry that I’m a guy, and that he lied to you for eighteen months, and that I can’t cook, and that I at cleaning…”

She reached out to grab my hand but I pulled it away from her. I didn’t want her to touch me. She sighed. Thankfully she didn’t push it though and we drank in silence. The wine tasted terrible but I drank it anyway. It was something to do rather than talk to her. “I don’t hate you Himchan.” She told me sometime after the appetizer had arrived. “I’m sorry that I ever made you feel that I did.” I downed the remaining liquid in my glass. “I didn’t understand what my son sees in you for a long time. I probably didn’t want to see it.”

“I don’t really know what he sees in me either Ma’am. And he doesn’t know what I see in him.” I mumbled it, regretting it the second the words slipped from my lips. It wasn’t my turn to speak.

The waiter filled my glass and took our orders before Yongguk’s mother continued talking to me. “Yongguk and I use to be very close, Himchan. His brother and sister were closer to their father and even after he died I wasn’t able to form a close relationship with them, but Yongguk was a mother’s boy. When I caught you two… together, that way, it was the first time I’d ever caught my son in a lie.” I wanted to apologise but I bit my tongue. “I wanted to blame you for that, but it wasn’t your fault. So I made up reasons to dislike you. Yongguk told me I couldn’t be in his life if I kept treating you the way I was and that made me realise that you’re not going anywhere. And seeing you take care of my son even though you can barely walk right now showed me that you love my son just as much as he loves you.”

There was nothing in my brain that I could have possibly used to respond to her. Something needed to be said though. She let me imitate a fish for a while before she reached out to pat my shoulder, “If you like I’ll come over every day to check on you and Yongguk so you don’t have to work so hard with your foot that way.”

“My friends Jaehyo and Daehyun have been helping.” I told her, not sure if I trusted this change in her behaviour. I still didn’t want to be around her more than I had to be, even if this change was genuine. “You can come check on him if you want though.” 
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woo update. i don't have anything to say because my brain is broken and i'm sick.
i hope you liked the chapter
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