Chapter 27

Irene has never grown more awkward in life before, until she knew she was to have lunch with the Kangs the day after tomorrow, that is.

“L-Lunch?” Irene dares repeat to make sure her ears are not playing with her, “W-With your parents?”

“Y-Yes?” She sees SeulGi’s eyebrows mirror the knitting of hers, “I-I mean, yes,” SeulGi repeats more firmly now, “Dad told me they want to meet us and ask you to have lunch with us.”

“O-Oh,” Irene suddenly feels like sweating, why is she suddenly nervous? “Did they mention why they’re coming here?”

“They’ll just visit us, he said.” SeulGi shrugs, and Irene knows SeulGi’s suddenly nervous as well.

“Oh,” Irene continues to feel the panic rising inside her.

Is this what SeulGi felt when she forced SeulGi to come and meet her parents back in Daegu?

“I’m,” Irene chuckles tensely, “I’m e-excited!”

It wouldn’t be the first time Irene would meet SeulGi’s parents. They already met a few times, considering that SeulGi’s parents would need to give their daughter up to the Baes for God knows how long.

So why, when Irene had already met them, was she suddenly nervous now?

---

They send Henry off the next morning.

Irene’s smile, she knows that she can’t hide, already swathed on her face as she remembers what happened last night.

I’m so sorry, Henry. She thinks, but she can’t help that her smile keeps on getting wider and wider with each memory.

“I’m going, Junnie.” Henry stops in front of her, with a light tug on a corner of his lip, “Take care.”

“You, too.” Irene rubs his arms, maybe for comfort, or apology? Irene doesn’t know.

She sees Henry sighs loudly before hugging her tight, “You’re so lucky, Junnie!”

Irene burrows her eyebrows together from shock and confusion, “What the hell, Henry?”

Though she feels Henry hug her a little bit more before pulling away and saying, “You lucky !” He says as he ruffles her hair messily, but he does it with a smile and Irene knows he’s only poking fun at her.

“Henry, you jerk!” Irene dodges as she steals a punch at his arm, “What are you talking about?”

She hears Henry sigh once more before he quietly says, “You get to be with her everyday.”

It would be a lie if Irene says she did not feel the littlest of warmth consume her inside, it would be a lie if Irene says she did not feel the lightest of reds colouring her cheeks.

She discreetly looks at SeulGi who was, thankfully, a bit farther than them. Irene would like to think SeulGi’s trying to give her and Henry some time to say their goodbyes properly.

How thoughtful.

“It’s… It’s no big deal, Henry.” Irene shyly looks down, just when did the floor start becoming more fascinating? “And I’m… sorry,” She shrugs, she doesn’t know where she’s going with this, “For what happened… to you and…” Irene finishes with a slight tilt of her head to SeulGi’s direction.

She hears Henry snicker and so she looks up, only to find a grinning Henry, “What’s so funny?” She frowns.

“Oh, Junnie!” He loops an arm around Irene’s shoulder, securing her in a mini-headlock, “If I know any better, you don’t mean what you said,” His grin still on his face as he continues, “And I’m a hundred percent sure you’re probably laughing at me inside that head of yours.”

“Wha-?” Irene pushes him off, but to no avail. Then a smile on her own starts to creep off her face, “You really are my cousin.”

They continue to laugh at each other until Henry’s the one to start speaking seriously again, “Take care of her, okay, Noona?”

And Irene could only look at him as she reassures him with a smile,

“Of course.”

But she does slap his arm – hard – one last time when he kisses SeulGi’s cheek goodbye.

---

“Back to normal.” Irene stretches as she enters the house again.

But nothing is ever normal anymore because then she remembers that she’ll meet SeulGi’s parents tomorrow, and will be eating with them on top of all that.

So with that thought, she rushes to SeulGi and says, “What will I do tomorrow?!”

She only sees bewilderment in the blonde’s eyes as SeulGi asks, “What do you mean?”

“Your parents!” Irene exclaims, “What should I say to your parents? How should I act? Should I look extra presentable? Should I give them something? How do I greet them? How do I address them?”

A lot of questions pour down Irene’s mouth and is only stopped when SeulGi says,

“Calm down, Irene! There’s no need to panic.” Though SeulGi can’t mask the giggle already making out of , “They’re just my parents.”

“Exactly why I should panic!” Irene widens her eyes, as she states the obvious with gritted teeth, “They’re your parents.”

Irene knows SeulGi will argue with her but she suddenly sees SeulGi’s mind wheels working as SeulGi simply nods,

“I understand.” SeulGi continues to nod, “I know how it feels.”

“With my parents?” Irene softly laughs.

And she sees SeulGi suddenly stiffening and… blushing?

The taller girl timidly nods as she says, “… Yes.”

Irene couldn’t help but keep her smile on her face as she admits in defeat, but with joy in her heart because SeulGi felt the same,

Irene says with a smile, as SeulGi smiles with her,

“I’m screwed, aren’t I?”

---

“My parents are not that scary,” SeulGi starts to orient Irene, “Well, not as scary as yours?”

“Hey,” Irene punches SeulGi’s arm, “You’re talking about my parents.”

But SeulGi only snickers, “Sorry.”

“Ah, SeulGi,” Irene plops to the couch, throwing her head back to meet the head rest, admitting something she’s not used to saying, “… I’m nervous.”

Irene closes her eyes but is quick to open them back up when she feels a hand on her forehead, and with a calming yet amused voice saying to her,

“Are you sick?”

Irene turns to SeulGi, a playful smile already on the latter’s lips.

And Irene admits she missed these.

These normal, simple things that – irrationally, unreasonably, crazily – makes her heart beat faster and the butterflies in her stomach flutter, and she has no idea why.

When SeulGi asks her ordinary things, or when SeulGi slightly touches her, or when SeulGi simply stares at her.

Irene admits she missed these.

That she missed SeulGi.

So she only smiles back, not in any way meaning what she says next, but meaning the opposite of it,

“Shut up, Kang.”

---

Irene was not able to sleep that night, worried on what to do or how she’ll fare tomorrow.

And Irene’s not one to be nervous, or anxious, or in any way worked out about something. But then she remembers it’s SeulGi’s parents she’ll be meeting.

And meeting people’s parents are never a problem to Irene, because she knows what to say, she knows what responses they wanted to hear, what they wanted to see from her – a proper lady, or a refined woman that is good for their sons or daughters – as a colleague, or as a friend, or as a lover.

And Irene knows what strings to pull on these kinds of meetings, because she’s raised like that. Because she’s taught like that.

Manners, table etiquette, proper decorum, politeness, demureness, good behaviour, elegance.

All those things, Irene knows, or at least fond of.

Though even if she’s fully equipped with knowledge on how and when to actually use them – these conducts – why does she still feel jittery and jumpy all over when it comes to SeulGi’s parents?

When it should be SeulGi actually feeling all these because it’s Irene’s family who the Kangs are indebted to? And it’s Irene who’ll be meeting them?

Irene decides to push the thoughts away, forcing her brain to stop functioning for a while to stop herself from stressing on trivial things too much.

And her brain does stop functioning because she hears SeulGi knock on her door.

“Come in.” She says, she’s too tired to still tease SeulGi.

“Hey, Irene.” SeulGi peeks.

“What is it?” Irene sits properly, head tilting to see the other girl.

“May I ask you something?”

Irene shrugs, “As long as it’s not Math.”

She sees SeulGi softly laugh, and so she laughs as well.

But when their small laughter subsides, SeulGi hesitantly asks, “Is it okay if I dye my hair back to black?”

Irene momentarily scrunches her forehead, and it continues to crease because then SeulGi mindlessly adds,

“SeungWan’s been telling me for weeks now and I only figured it now that she’s probably right and it would be… less weird if I meet my parents without… well, this bright hair.”

Just the mere mention of the name ‘SeungWan’ and all the rest of what SeulGi said were not able to reach Irene’s ears anymore.

Irene blacks out just by that name.

She may have gotten rid of her pesky cousin, but this girl – this SeungWan – is hard to cut off.

“No.” Irene sternly says, demanding and cold, “Keep that hair colour.”

And Irene knows SeulGi knows too well that Irene doesn’t like repeating herself, and so she sees the blonde, who she knows is slightly shaken, slowly nodding and meekly saying, “… Okay.”

Irene doesn’t mean to sound like the that she is, but she can’t help it.

“Sorry for disturbing you,” SeulGi throws her a small, uneasy smile, “… Good night, Irene.”

Irene only stares away until she hears the door closes and she goes back under the comfort of her bed,

With more thoughts to try and shut off.

---

“You’re up so early.”

Irene looks at where the voice came from, with a cup of tea on her hand and a sweater too big for her and too long for her arms.

“I can’t sleep.” Irene plays with the ear of the cup, today’s the day she’ll be eating with the Kangs.

She hears SeulGi chuckle before the taller girl asks, “Are you that nervous?”

Irene doesn’t like to argue and so she only shrugs, “… Maybe.”

“Irene,” SeulGi sits across her, “I told you, you don’t have anything to worry about.” SeulGi smiles at her, “We’ll just have lunch with them.”

She looks at SeulGi and contemplates that SeulGi’s correct,

What should Irene be worried about? Even worried about?

Why should she be even worried?

And she wonders, but then she sees SeulGi’s smile.

SeulGi’s smile – so reassuring, and so calm – that never fails to make her feel things,

And that’s enough to ease her fearful mind.

---

“Can we take a stroll first before meeting your parents?” Irene asks, because even is she’s able to calm her heart, apparently she can’t calm her feet, “And you did ask me out last night.”

Irene unintentionally blushes at the recall of their conversation, and because of how what she just said sounded differently than she intended for it to sound.

SeulGi looks away, and Irene likes to believe that SeulGi’s having the same crimson colour that’s on Irene’s face, as SeulGi says, “S-Sure, where do you want to go?”

“I don’t know,” Irene admits truthfully, “Maybe just at the park?”

SeulGi nods slowly, not in anyway looking back at Irene. Not that Irene is also looking,

For Irene has her head low, afraid that the blush on her cheek decides to stay there.

And Irene knows that that stupid blush keeps on creeping up and up,

Because then she hears SeulGi say,

Word so short and simple, and yet makes her heart beat aflutter,

“… Okay.”

---

It’s never Irene’s intention when she suddenly holds SeulGi’s arm, because she knows herself for being the physical type.

It’s also never Irene’s intention when she slowly loops her fingers tighter when the wind momentarily gets stronger, making her latch herself closer to the other girl for support.

It’s also never Irene’s intention when she finds her other hand make its way on holding SeulGi’s own as they continued to walk.

And it’s also never Irene’s intention when her heart pounds against her chest so hard when she finally realizes what she’s doing.

Because she only realizes it,

When SeulGi holds her hand tighter.

---

“Are you ready?”

Irene sees SeulGi tilt her head to the brunette’s direction.

But no words are able to form and come out of Irene’s mouth, so Irene plainly nods.

They walk to the restaurant where SeulGi’s parents said where they’ll be. They continue to walk, with SeulGi walking a bit faster and further than Irene, until they’re at front of the door, and it’s only then that Irene halts for a split moment.

It makes SeulGi stop walking as well when she notices that no one’s following her anymore.

“SeulGi,” Irene weakly calls, and SeulGi’s never one to not hear it.

“Yes?” SeulGi goes closer to her.

“Can you…” Irene trails off, not able to bring her eyes to meet SeulGi’s,

And Irene can only play with her own fingers because she knows she’ll sound so pathetic, and so clingy, and so needy, and so desperate with her request,

“Can you please hold my hand?”

---

It was awkward.

Irene has never stiffened like this before. She has never grown this awkward before.

Before she met the Kangs in a proper lunch, that is.

Not even the warmth of SeulGi’s hand on hers is able to pass through and melt the ice that makes her body shiver.

She mindlessly and restlessly stands in the same spot as she watches SeulGi – who even asked permission from her if the blonde can release the hold on her hand, which Irene grants her, and so SeulGi smiles as a reply – go over her parents first to hug and kiss them as to meet them.

Irene’s amused, she confesses. Not only because it’s heart-warming to see SeulGi so happy in seeing her parents, but also because SeulGi’s parents – let’s all admit – are not the wealthiest of all.

But Irene’s amused – impressed, touched, even – because Irene knows that even if where they are at now isn’t the best restaurant in all Korea, and Irene’s sure that this is nowhere the type where she’s used to, SeulGi’s parents – Irene knows, Irene’s sure – did their best to at least make her feel that the restaurant was. She knows it’s maybe to impress her, or maybe because SeulGi’s parents think that she’s not used to low-class restaurants, or maybe they think that it’s the ‘proper’ way to accommodate her.

The restaurant isn’t shabby, not the dirt-poor restaurant, but not also a five-star one. Maybe somewhere in the middle, but Irene admits the food here is also expensive, and she only wonders why SeulGi’s parents even bother when they could have just used the money to…

“Irene,”

Her thoughts are cut off when she hears SeulGi call for her, a bright smile already plastered on SeulGi’s face.

“Come here,” SeulGi motions with a hand, “I’ll introduce you to my parents.”

And there goes all the nerves hitting Irene again. For she suddenly can’t control her body, can’t even feel her body anymore.

The anxiety and the panic she’s trying hard to suppress quickly catching up.

And she sees the same trepidation and awkwardness in SeulGi’s father when he stands up and hits the corner of the table, making him trip – on his own foot – a bit before SeulGi helping him to stand properly.

“Are you okay, Dad?” SeulGi asks and her father can only nod repeatedly before bowing to Irene – once, twice, until Irene worriedly signals SeulGi to make him stop.

“G-Good day, Ms. Bae.” He shakingly says, and Irene sees SeulGi’s mother stand up as well as she bows to Irene, too.

“Hello, Ms. Bae.” She says a bit more firmly than her husband.

And Irene also only bows in respect – and in nervousness, “H-Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Kang.”

No one seems to end the bowing so it’s SeulGi – Irene hears – say,

“Okay!” SeulGi chuckles as she rubs her nape, “L-Let’s eat?”

Irene quickly nods, just so they can sit already and she would not look like a stiff fool, standing there like a stick.

But Irene guesses that she’s not the only one nervous because then she sees SeulGi’s father accidentally bumping the corner of the table once more.

---

Irene’s not one to talk too much, but she’s not one to be this quiet as well.

She only politely – and shyly, and warily – smiles to whatever it was SeulGi’s parents are saying. Though she’d take small bites in between, and tiny murmurs to SeulGi time to time.

It’s not that SeulGi’s parents aren’t accommodating – heck, they’re very good hosts – it’s just that Irene can also sense the uneasiness from them and in turn, makes her more tensed than she already is.

But Irene’s quick in covering it because then she’ll reply to all their questions and, thankfully, she can somehow maintain the conversation they’re trying – hard, well, at least what Irene thinks – to initiate.

“S-So, Ms. Bae,” She hears SeulGi’s father speaking, “H-How is my daughter? I hope she’s not too much of a problem?”

Irene hears SeulGi scowl, making the latter’s father laugh.

Irene smiles as well as she turn to SeulGi, who was beside her, “SeulGi?” She repeats the name as to play with it.

And Irene makes sure that SeulGi knows her tone, her tone that is about to tease,

“Don’t you dare, Irene.” She hears SeulGi whisper softly at her.

“SeulGi, SeulGi, SeulGi,” Irene repeats the name as to ponder on what to say, making her smile wider because she sees SeulGi slowly turning to her. Death threats written all over the taller girl’s face.

“You see, Mr. Kang,” Irene continues to smile widely, “Your daughter has been very, very–”

“H-Hey, Irene, you have to try one of these!” SeulGi quickly cuts her off as to put something on Irene’s plate, the panic in SeulGi’s tone slowly being noticeable.

And Irene tries her hardest not to laugh out loud because of SeulGi’s antics and when she hears SeulGi’s father say,

“SeulGi! It’s ‘Ms. Bae’, where are your manners?!”

And Irene finally lets her giggle out when she hears SeulGi say,

“Sorry, Ms. Bae.”

---

Irene ends up telling SeulGi’s folks what they wanted to hear about their daughter, though Irene drops subtle hints on how their daughter can be a pain in the , which sends Irene quite a few daggers from SeulGi. Not that Irene minds, because she’s too busy laughing because of it.

But Irene’s laugh was put into a pause when SeulGi’s mother suddenly asks,

“Is my daughter seeing someone, Ms. Bae?”

Which made SeulGi’s father choke on his food.

It was impulse that Irene and SeulGi stare at each other as to think of what to answer, and Irene’s quick to understand what SeulGi’s panicked eyes are trying to say,

“W-Well,” Irene blinks a few times as she scrunches her forehead, “Y-Your daughter is…”

“Don’t mess up, Irene,” She hears SeulGi say in a hushed tone, and it takes everything of Irene from stopping herself from laughing out loud when she hears SeulGi barely add,

“… I’m begging you.”

And Irene decides to just unexpectedly smile, just to see SeulGi get clammy, “Well, you see, Mr. and Mrs. Kang, your daughter is…”

But that smile gradually lowers when certain words – surprising words, because they were sudden and unexpected as well – come out of Irene’s own mouth,

“SeulGi is… very beautiful and very charming, and… it’s, it’s hard to actually not like her, and… well, you see…”

Irene trails off, her eyebrows starting to meet together and her eyes blink repeatedly as she wonders what she just said.

What she said without thinking, and without much thought.

S