You spent the next fifteen minutes trying to avoid even a glance towards Kai's direction. It should've been easy with all the curious aunts and cousins trying to attract your attention (or Chanyeol's), but it was surprisingly an incredibly hard task. You could feel Kai's smiling eyes inspecting you from head to toe, scrutinizing any slight change in you —according to everyone, you went from a "small town stick to an elegant city woman with a much-needed increase in body mass" —and his close inspection unsettled you. 

"Hey, so when am I meeting your family... you know, the one that won't try to get their hands all over me?" Chanyeol whispered to you, trying to smile at the cousins and aunts that were currently attempting to 'accidentally' get their hands on the scared boy. 

"Right now," you promised, before handing a bright smile towards the crowd around you. "Chanyeol and I need to go take a call from his publisher. We'll see all of you in a while, alright?"

The disappointment was evident in the female side of your family's eyes, but after sending longing gazes towards Chanyeol, they relented to your wishes and dispersed among your house, gushing about their proximity to Chanyeol with other family members and friends.

"You're my hero," Chanyeol breathed out, the fear in his eyes melting away into gratefulness. After receiving a warm smile from your part, he cautiously and slowly placed a light hand on your forearm, looking for some sort of source of security. Knowing that being the center of attention wasn't exactly your friend's cup of tea, you did not recoil at his gesture (you never did, but Chanyeol was somehow always scared of touching you). Seeing this, you felt his hand relax a little and you began guiding him towards the end of the room, where your parents and older brother eagerly awaited for you. In the way, you lost your previous battle and let yourself glance at Kai's direction. You thought he perhaps would've moved places, but he was still gazing at you. Hands in his pockets, shoulders relaxed, and lips crookedly curled up into a smile, he was the same Kai you'd left five years ago —except that he'd become more handsome. His eyes met yours, and before you could feel anything, you directed them back to your family. 

Don't be stupid, you told yourself, before falling into your mother's open arms.

"My baby is all grown up!" your mother exclaimed, and you could hear her tears. You only hugged her tighter, already used to her ways. She shed tears even when an ant was killed, but you still loved that and every other aspect of hers. Pulling back, you chuckled as you saw the awaited tears rolling down her cheeks.

"Mom, this is supposed to be a happy occasion," your older brother, Suho, laughed off, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. 

"Please excuse my wife," your father told Chanyeol, embracing her as well. "She's sort of a crybaby."

"Nah, that's totally fine. Your daughter, though, is the complete opposite," Chanyeol replied, quickly glancing at you before returning your family's gaze.

"After her cat died and she cried for an entire week, she promised she'd never cry again," your mother blurted out. 

"Mom!" you protested, feeling embarrassment as Chanyeol laughingly gazed at you. 

"She was a fourteen-year-old bamboo stick when that happened," Suho commented, holding you in a tight embrace. He also seemed to be holding back tears. "It's been two years since I've seen you in person... we've really missed you."

"Too much," your father emphasized, hugging you as well. Soon, your entire family —even your dog, Woof (you were just nine when you'd chosen a name for him) —were soon around you, choking you in a tight group hug. Chanyeol only stared at the scene, lovingly grinning at all of you.

"Excuse them, they're really cheesy and mushy," you panted out, trying not to lose your breath as you stretched out a pair of flailing arms. 

"It's actually quite refreshing to see that your family is so different from you," Chanyeol told you, leaning against the wall. 

After finally being freed by your family, you quickly ran to Chanyeol's side, trying to avoid any other attack. 

"She used to be a sweetheart until she entered high school," your grandmother spoke behind you, slowly making her way towards you. She patted your back with her weak hands. "She always greeted you with long embraces and was not shy about expressing her feelings... or anything, really. She used to share everything —aspirations, worries, ideas... even her crazy inventions, like her turkey dance."

"Oh, no... not that!" you protested, burying your face in your hands. You were already uncomfortable with her oversharing, but, according to you, your grandmother crossed the line by bringing up the turkey dance.

"Turkey dance?" Chanyeol repeated, wanted to make sure he'd heard right. You could see in his eyes he could not believe that the girl your family was describing was you. 

As soon as all those present in the welcome party heard the words 'turkey dance', they exploded into an excited frenzy. Everybody knew about your famous dance, and soon, they were asking for you to demonstrate it.

"Do the turkey! Do the turkey!" they all chanted, fists bumping in the air. 

"Oh, come on..." you whimpered, trying to smile (an expression that came out more like a grimace). "I thought you were all saying I was an elegant city woman now. I should not-"

"Well, once you're back here you're still the old you who danced like a turkey!" one of your uncles exclaimed, which only increased the passion of the chants. 

Chanyeol was clearly enjoying the scene, you could tell. But after gazing at you and probably sensing your discomfort, he stepped forward, holding up his arms. "While she warms up, how about I dance for all of you?" 

Your mouth dropped open. You could not believe he had just volunteered to be the center of attention for your sake. Does he even know what he's getting himself into? you wondered. You placed a hand on his shoulders, about to tell him to back off because you'd do the famous dance, but he only turned to look at you with alarming eyes. 

"Escape while you can," he ordered in a whisper, before swinging around and beginning to groove to the music. As your family cheered, you quickly made your way to the stairs, not before bumping into Kai. His cologne instantly enveloped the air around you, and you realized he still smelled the same as before. This fact annoyed you very much because it made you just want to give in to your desire to stare at him. You were about to look up and get entangled right back into thoughts about him, until you managed to mentally slap some sense into you.  I'd managed to forget this guy for a while back then, you mentally lamented. Who even invited him? 

Handing him a one-second smile, you pretended not to be fazed by his presence and climbed up the stairs, heading over to your usual hiding spot. Little did you know that your infamous ex-boyfriend had closely began to follow you. 

-

*totally ignores the fact that she promised a story cover by now* So the second chapter is finally up. I really have nothing else to say other than thank you for checking out my story. A shout-out to those who subscribed! I'm not sure whether you wonderful people are either Kai fans or Chanyeol fans, so I'll leave a gift of both (yes, the ferret guy is CY):

And just in case you happen to like one of my ultimate baes, here's him trying to protect his image by hiding his real self with a towel: