“Go ahead, CAP. Tell him,” Chunji ignorantly encouraged. 

“Yes, son. Tell me.” CAP and the others remained deathly silent as they noticed the thickness in the air. Chunji, on the other hand, saw absolutely nothing out of the ordinary.

“Well, you see sir,” Chunji felt obliged to speak up. “There was this black fangirl that we met the other day, maybe a week or two ago, I think? Basically, he sort of fell in love with her.”

“Really?” he questioned as if he was genuinely interested. 

“No! I have not!” CAP squeaked defensively in an octave higher than normal. He tried to piece his words together to attempt to make the situation more acceptable. “I just… appreciate her dancing ability.”

“Mm-hm,” his father hummed in thought with his eyes squinted.

“Her ‘dancing ability’… Right… That’s why you text her all the time?” Chunji smirked to himself. 

“What?!” the man finally almost shouted.

Still completely unaware of the severity of his choice of words, the bimbo blonde continued, “I bet he even has a picture of her. Oops…” When he turned around to see CAP’s father’s reaction to his last joke, he saw and heard him harshly exhale through his nostrils like a raging bull about to charge. 

“All of you, leave my house at once,” he ordered. “I need to have a word with my son.”

Chunji tried to correct the situation, saying, “Oh, sir, I wasn’t serious about the picture. I just–”

“Out!” Mr. Bang shouted at the top of his lungs.

“I’m sorry!” Chunji mewled like a lost puppy as he and the others shuffled out quickly.

CAP kept his eyes pointed to the ground, but he could still feel his father’s eyes drilling holes into his flesh. 

“Bang Minsoo,” he eventually addressed his son with his real full name. “I am very disappointed in you. Give me your phone.”

“What?! Dad! I’m twenty years old!” CAP challenged, only to be shot down.

“Minsoo, you stop that foolishness right now! You live under my house so you will abide by my rules!” CAP’s father shouted as he took the phone. “I cannot believe that you would bring such shame upon our family. I will not have my son marrying some–”

In disbelief, CAP interrupted, “Dad! I’m not even– When did I say I wanted to marry her?!”

“Do not raise your voice at me, young man! I don’t even want you interested in someone of her kind. Do you understand?!” As he shouted, he slammed his hand on CAP’s computer desk to emphasize the question. 

“And what if I say no?” CAP tested. 

“Then I will disown you from this family and you will be forbidden to use our family name,” he stated with no hint of fabrication. 

“For what reason?” CAP questioned, taken aback. 

“For stooping to such detestable levels to seek unnecessary attention to yourself. Do you even understand how huge of a disgrace would be heaped upon the Bang family because of your ignorant decision?!”

“And what about yours, marrying a pregnant woman?” CAP saw that he struck his father in a sensitive spot, so he proudly continued, “In my opinion–”

Slap. “Don’t ever let me catch you talking about your mother so shamelessly disrespectfully, Minsoo. Marrying anyone who was in your mother’s position would and will always be more acceptable than some classless gyrating foreigner.”

Ignoring his stinging cheek, CAP mocked, “Do you even know how many boyfriends she had before she met you?”

“She had one,” CAP’s father mumbled, holding back tears for the sake of his pride. 

“Are you sure about that?”

“One! Ok?! She had one!” He was no longer capable of holding back his emotions.

CAP was still confused because none of this made sense to him. “But–”

“Son, all the rumors aren’t true. Every last one of them is a lie. Your mother never wanted to become pregnant. She never asked for it. … I wanted to tell you when you were older, but I guess… I guess I never got around to it.” With that, Mr. Bang left the room to allow his son time to process the news. 

When he felt that a suitable amount of time had passed, Niel entered and empathized, “Hey, sorry about your mom.”

“Yeah, it’s… it’s cool,” CAP commented with lowered eyes. When his best friend sat next to him, he wasn’t well enough to make eye contact. “I just… I just wish I could have known sooner.”

“How could you if no one told you? Come on, don’t beat yourself up,” Niel cooed as he massaged his hyung’s back.

“Where did you hide this time?” CAP asked, changing the subject  because he was uncomfortable with himself seeming so weak, especially in front of one of his dongsaengs.

Every time Niel was supposed to leave, he made it a habit to hide so that he could stay longer. Sometimes, he would hide in dangerous areas of the house and he would end up having to stay in that place overnight so that CAP’s dad wouldn’t find him. Other times, he would stay somewhere in CAP’s room, always centimeters away from being seen. Miraculously, though, he had never been caught. 

“I actually didn’t hide this time,” Niel answered. “I got distracted because I saw something, and as I was checking it out, your dad came out. I couldn’t really go anywhere quietly, so I just kind of crouched down. Thank goodness he didn’t even look in my direction, though.”

“I doubt he would even care if it was just you. You’re pretty much like family.” CAP shrugged. 

“But, your dad is always so scary!” he squeaked with his eyebrows furrowed in reminiscent fear. 

After chuckling, CAP curiously  asked, “So, what was it you were you looking at?”

Niel held up a movie and looked directly into CAP’s eyes judgingly. “Your secret movie stash in the towel closet.”

Hopping to his feet, CAP immediately started, “Niel, I-I can explain!” 

“Care Bears: Journey to Joke-a-Lot?” Niel read the title aloud.

Trying to snatch away the movie, CAP tried to shift the ownership onto one of his sisters, “Uh, i-it’s not mine, it’s–”

“Don’t even play, hyung. They both don’t even live here anymore,” Niel teased knowingly as he held the movie out of CAP’s reach.

CAP sat back down in defeat, but suddenly thought of an idea. “If you tell anyone, I’ll just say it’s really yours.”

“What?! And then I’ll say you’re lying!”

CAP just laughed at his naïve dongsaeng. “Who do you think people’d believe, though?” After Niel’s loud sigh of realization, CAP compromised, “I won’t say anything if you let me use your phone sometimes.”

After two seconds of thought, Niel agreed, “Uh, yeah. That’s fine, I guess.” When he glanced at the food still on the floor, Niel instinctively got up and started cleaning. “Why do you like her so much anyway? I don’t get it.”

Instead of helping to clean his own room, CAP went over to his bed and laid down with his arms folded behind his head. With a pleasant smile on his face, he answered, “I don’t really know. Maybe, it’s the way she dances.”

“BoA can dance, and so can Hyuna, but I’ve never seen you fanboy over them.”

“I don’t know, she’s– I can’t even expl– She’s just different, you know?”

“‘Different’. Exotic?” Niel asked, trying to get a better understanding.

“Yeah, maybe that’s it.”

“Katy Perry is exotic, too, isn’t she?”

“Yeah, but…” CAP searched for the words to use, and he flexed his toes in deep thought causing his big toe to pop through the worn hole of his sock. Because the exposure felt weird, he then sat up and slowly readjusted his sock as he thought aloud, “Katy Perry isn’t black. I just like black girls because they seem so… exciting. I mean, how often would I get the chance to experiment with one?”

Niel chuckled at CAP’s choice of words. “‘Experiment’?”

“She’s the first black girl that I’ve ever been around. You know what I mean.”

“I guess.” After minutes of silent cleaning, Niel eventually announced, “If you get to use my phone to text Andya, I get to text her, too.”

“Niel, no. You can’t even pronounce her name right,” CAP argued.

Niel begged, “Come on!”

“No, I need to set up our conversations just right so that she’ll want to go out with me, and then… the games will begin.” CAP grinned to himself as he imagined the excitement of having a foreign girlfriend – a black girlfriend.

“Well,” Niel suggested, “it’ll help for ‘your’ conversations to continue even when you’re not actually around.”

“No. She’d easily be able to decipher the difference.”

“We’ll, it’s my phone.”

CAP sighed understanding that Niel would still text her because the stubborn boy wouldn’t take no for an answer.  He muttered, “Just try not to be an idiot, please.”

Niel reassured, “Don’t worry! Everything will be okay, trust me.”

At that very moment, CAP threw his palm against his forehead.