♬ | LEDApple “Time Is Up” | SHINee “Forever or Never” | NS Yoon-G “I Got You” | ♬

When Byunghun told Eunmi to not do anything stupid, the reasonable thing to do would be to listen to her boyfriend. But of course Eunmi was done with reason seeing as her parents refused to see hers. Ever since her parents came back she hasn’t seen Byunghun since that day the twins helped her out. There have been times when her siblings tried to get them together again, but her parents ended up dragging her to some college road trip, making her visit colleges and classes in hopes of getting her out and about.

Eunmi decided to practically shut them off and has simply been dragged around like a rag doll, finding no happiness in anything they dragged her into.

It was the last day of summer and Eunmi was doing a half-assed job of getting her book bag ready for tomorrow. She was absent-mindedly putting random school supplies into her bag when her parents burst in through the door with an excited smile plastered onto their faces.

“Honey you’ll never believe who we just got off the phone with!” Her mother exclaimed, grasping her daughter’s hand into her own out of sheer anticipation. Eunmi’s sarcasm couldn’t help but come in at a worse time as she asked,

“Who, L.Joe?”

Her father gave her a warning look and said sternly,

“That isn’t funny Eunmi.” She shrugged and continued to pack with one of her hands, seeing as the other was held by her mother tightly.

“We’ve gotten you an interview with Dankook University!” Her mother exclaimed, her grasp on Eunmi’s hand tightening in utter joy. Eunmi stopped packing for a second, realizing what she just heard.

It was her and her parent’s dream for Eunmi to attend Dankook University. Not only was it an elite school that was hard to get into, it was one of the all-around top universities in all of Asia. There were even some notable celebrities that have graduated from said university like Jay Park, T.O.P, Kim Hyung Jun, and even Rain. She knew that getting an interview was one of those once in a life time chances that won’t come around a second time.

She bit her bottom lip in thought before finally saying,

“I’m not going.” Her mother let go of her daughter’s hand in utter horror, wondering what has become of Eunmi when asking,

“Wh-what are you saying Eunmi? Or course you’re going, stop spouting such nonsense.” Eunmi calmly replied,

“You’ve been forcing me to go to college interviews this entire summer without my consent and you have yet to let me see L.Joe.” Her father couldn’t believe in his daughter’s rebellion and warned,

“Young lady if this is all going to be about that boy again I assure you that if you do not listen to us this instant, you will not see him ever again.” Eunmi sighed and replied in a calm tone, exemplifying a more mature attitude than her parents were at the moment.

“It is about L.Joe and he isn’t just ‘that boy’ dad. And I’m sorry but if you aren’t listening to me when I’m trying to get my own point across, I see no reason why I have to listen to you. You’ve always told me to respect those who give it to you and to be quite honest, you both haven’t given me any the past month.”

It was clear that Eunmi thought this through. You might be thinking, how could such a daughter behave this way towards her own parents? How could she throw away her college dream over just some guy?

Those thoughts were all swimming around in Eunmi’s head at that very moment and she had an answer for them all.  Her parents never did listen to her and she knew that even though they thought they were doing what was best for her, she really wished that for once in their life they would open their ears and listen to their own children’s voices. She wasn’t throwing away her college dream, she was sacrificing it for something she valued and loved more than that. Eunmi had confidence in her grades that she would be able to find another college that would gladly accept her and Byunghun was so much more than ‘some guy’ or ‘that boy.’ He’s been with her through thick and thin and she wasn’t about to back down so easily.

Outside her room C.A.P heard everything, seeing as her parents decided to use the method of yelling at their daughter’s unreasonable choice. He sighed in exhaustion and went into his room, closing the door behind him as he took out his phone and dialed a number.

“Yobseyo?” The line on the other end answered after a few rings.

__________

“I cannot believe this, how could this happen over some-some boy?” Her father was muttering to himself as he paced back and forth in the kitchen, trying to find the right words to express his anger. His wife was in the middle of cooking lunch and her husband was still angered by the turn of events, his blood pressure rising with every passing second no doubt.

Eunmi was in the living room flipping through the channels with her brothers at her side, all of them wanting to watch different TV shows. She finally settled for a rerun of “Running Man” and was just about to lean into the couch and watch Lee Joon do a split in mid-air when the doorbell suddenly rang.

C.A.P got to his feet since he was closest and opened the door to reveal Byunghun. Eunmi was shocked to see him standing there, knowing full well her parents were to come into the living room and see their unwanted guest. The twins didn’t seem to read the situation so well and ran up to him, nearly tackling him in the doorway.

Niel and Byunghun shook hands briefly exchanging curt hey’s when Mr. And Mrs. Kwon walked in, both equally displeased.

“Annyaseyo.” Byunghun greeted and bowed, not sure of how to act in front of two adults that seemed to dislike him.

“What are you doing here?” Mr. Kwon asked, almost threatening for him to leave.

“I invited him.” C.A.P spoke up, squeezing Byunghun’s shoulder for strength. C.A.P called Byunghun and told him the story, the boyfriend clearly unhappy with the news of Eunmi rejecting such an offer from her dream college she’s told him about countless times.

The family stood there in dead silence, the scene before them looking as if it came straight out of a drama. Byunghun sighed and finally began to talk, remembering why he was here in the first place.

“Eunmi you have to go to that interview. You’ve been telling me about that place for ages and I know that you want to go there no matter what.” Eunmi was quite shocked that he knew about her latest decision. She fidgeted in her spot as her parents were watching her like a hawk.

“Well I don’t want to go there anymore. I’ll find another college anyways and-” Eunmi began but Byunghun wouldn’t hear any of it. He walked across to the living room and took her by the hand, dragging her behind him.

“Eunmi you’re doing the exact opposite of what I told you not to do. I don’t want you to regret this later.” He said, sighing in frustration as he knew his girlfriend would try something like this. Sure he was happy that she was willing to rebel for their sake but if it meant ruining her bright future, he didn’t want to hear a word of it.

“No really I don’t want to go…” Eunmi said as she attempted to dig her feet into the carpet in an attempt to stop her from moving forward.

She was a terrible liar and she knew it, but she still tried to stop herself. It was killing her on the inside to see Byunghun try so hard but she knew that with her parents watching, there was bound to be another World War with them and Byunghun if this kept up at the rate it was going.

Byunghun finally spun around, his anger showing when he confronted Eunmi,

“Eunmi stop giving me such lies! I know how much you want to go to that place and I don’t want you throwing your chances away so easily just because-” Eunmi couldn’t take it anymore and finally exclaimed,

“But I’m not throwing it away! I’m doing this because I care more about you than some stupid college interview!” Her parents gasped at her statement, quite shocked at her declaration.

C.A.P smiled when he saw his parent’s reaction, knowing that they were slowly beginning to understand and realize how much his sister loved L.Joe.

Byunghun was touched by Eunmi’s words, a blush sneaking its way onto his cheeks at how she announced her feelings so openly in front of her parents. He smiled at the girl, his love for her only seeming to grow day by day as he said,

“I care a lot about you too Eunmi … which is why I have to do this, sorry.” Byunghun quickly wrapped his arms around her legs and threw her over his shoulder, quickly running out the house and towards his motorcycle. Eunmi was in complete shock at Byunghun’s sudden actions in front of her parents and didn’t know what to grab onto as Byunghun ran with uneven leaps towards his bike.

He quickly put her onto the seat and placed the helmet onto her head, safety first right? Before she even had a chance to think of a getaway, he revved up his engine and they took off, Eunmi’s arms quickly wrapping themselves around Byunghun’s waist to stop her from falling off like she did the very first time she rode on his bike.

___________

Byunghun slowed the motorcycle and stopped at the curb, turning the engine off as he looked at the building before him.

It wasn’t known as a high-class university for nothing. The stairs led up to a giant building that no doubt held many opportunities for Eunmi and Byunghun couldn’t help but smile a little, imagining her walking through the halls no doubt becoming a quick favorite by the teachers and students.

“Alright, let’s go.” Byunghun said, attempting to get up but was held back when Eunmi’s hands pulled on his shirt. He looked behind her and saw that she was still wearing the helmet and was holding onto the back of his shirt like a little child.

“Hey babe what’s wrong?” He asked noting her silence. He turned around and took off the helmet to see her cheeks moist with some tears. He panicked at the sight, not exactly prepared to see her crying.

He wiped away at her tears with his sleeve and asked,

“Eunmi what’s wrong?” She shook her head and she managed to stop her flow of tears long enough for her to regain her normal breathing. Byunghun brought her into his arms and soothingly rubbed her back as he joked,

“Pabo you can’t go in looking like that.” He managed to get a thick giggle out of her seeing as ’s been clogged up by the tears and emotions.

Nonetheless she pulled back and asked him,

“Do you really not care about us? I mean you seem as if you don’t really care if my parents-” Eunmi began, her reason for her tears already coming through as Byunghun didn’t want to hear any of it and kissed her. It wasn’t a hot steamy kiss but it held a lot of warmth and affection in it, sending the message across to Eunmi. It lasted for a few seconds before he broke it off, leaning his forehead onto hers as he shut his eyes so that his head wouldn’t hurt to stare at her cross-eyed.

“Pabo, of course I want your parent’s approval. But right now, I just want you to go in and blow their minds with how amazing and brilliant you are. I know that if you didn’t go to this interview, you sure as hell would regret it later and I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I knew I was the that was the cause of it.”

It was times like these that Eunmi couldn’t help but fall for him even harder. She gently kissed him once more before she … knocked their foreheads together.

Byunghun yelled “Aish!” in frustration as he furiously rubbed his forehead that was no doubt going to have a bruise tomorrow morning. What a great way to model a shiner for the first day of school, and on the forehead no less.

Funny thing was, in the midst of all that pain he still rubbed Eunmi’s forehead knowing she hit herself just as hard and was in the same amount of pain as he was. It was quite a scene to see two idiots in love with agonized faces sitting on a motorcycle as the guy rubbed both of their foreheads.

“Aigoo…” Eunmi whined, the pain slowly seeping in.

“Babe, I love you but what gave you the idea to do such a thing?” Byunghun asked after his pain went away and he only focused on his girlfriend’s forehead. He rubbed at her forehead gently to try and soothe any pain but she only shook her head and gently took his hand off of her forehead. She gently patted her cheeks a few times with both hands and smiled when raising a fist in the air yelling,

“Fighting!~” In a weird way, Eunmi thought that knocking their heads together would get her to come to her senses and decided to bury her moping self as she knew she needed to recollect the Eunmi that was there before in order to pass this interview.

She hopped off the motorcycle and Byunghun could only smile at her, amazed at how she never seemed to bore him with her character. She gave him a brief wave and ran up the stairs energetically, even doing a brief hop at the last one. She turned around and gave him a giant wave before taking a deep breath and stepping inside her future school.

“Go knock em dead, Eunmi.” Byunghun whispered as he leaned against his bike, knowing that she’s finally back to her old self again.

____________

It was a silent lunch back in the Kwon residence. The twins still completely oblivious to the tense atmosphere as they hungrily devoured their samgyetang soup. Mrs. Kwon looked at her husband and saw that his jaw was tense, clearly wondering when on earth his daughter would be back and how he would punish her gravely.

She looked at her family before her and couldn’t stand the situation they were in. She never wanted her family to be like this, always hoping that they could be the happy bunch you would see on television.

She coughed slightly and asked Niel,

“Sweetie, what kind of person is L.Joe?” Niel was quite surprised by her question, as was Mr. Kwon. The mother of five didn’t want to argue with her daughter for the rest of her life and thought that she might as well open up and give this young man a chance seeing as he means so much to Eunmi.

Niel swallowed his food before saying in pure honesty,

“He’s a really cool hyung, I’m glad that he and Eunmi are together. He actually tries to talk to me and I can confidently say he’s a friend of mine.” Ricky decided to defend L.Joe-hyung himself and added,

“And he buys us candy! Sometimes Eunmi-noona forgets to bring home some snacks and we end up dying from the lack of sweets but L.Joe-hyung always has a bag of chips waiting for us.” ChangJo thinks he can top what Ricky said and added,

“He even helps us with homework! One time Eunmi-noona got two problems wrong and when she left to start dinner, L.Joe-hyung quickly corrected her and showed us how to do the problem right. He even plays with us when C.A.P-hyung has work and Niel-hyung has after school clubs.” ChangJo smiled at himself, quite content with how well he promoted his hyung.

Mr. Kwon seemed to have cracked at their words and sighed when asking the eldest son,

“Min Soo, what do you honestly think of L.joe?” C.A.P looked up from his soup and smiled, knowing already what to reply with.

“I can’t believe Eunmi didn’t meet him sooner.”