[fic] Minho/Key - SHINee - High Maintenance - Chapter 6/10
Title: High Maintenance; Chapter 6/10
Author: fonulyn
Rating: NC17 (overall)
Pairing: Minho/girl!Key (Minho/Gwiboon)
Other characters: Jonghyun, Onew, Zhou Mi, Boa, girl!Taemin (some are around more than others)
Warnings: --
Wordcount: 47 200 (overall); 4525 for this part
Disclaimer: I own no one, only my dirty imagination.
Summary: When Gwiboon's car breaks down she expects the repairs to be an annoying hassle. Not in her wildest dreams had she hoped for an illegally hot mechanic to be there to ease her hardships.
Comments: Previous parts: Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5
There is something that clearly results from meeting Minho’s parents though, and it sends Gwiboon into a slight crisis. She barricades herself on Jinki’s couch the following Saturday evening, with a huge tub of ice cream, just because she knows he enjoys stealing a spoonful or two from her every now and then during their so called serious talks. Which more often than not is random complaining about everyday life, but hey, it feels much more gratifying to call it something different.
What she enjoys the most is when she gets to drop bombs in the middle of Jinki stuffing a gigantic spoonful of ice cream in his mouth. Every time she has something shocking to tell him, she waits until the perfect moment and then watches him try to cough up little bits of the cold mass from his lungs. That’s exactly what she does this time, too, even though there’s this certain excited tingling in the pit of her stomach that she doesn’t remember feeling in …forever.
“I’m in love.” It feels weird saying the words and she almost forgets to look for Jinki’s reaction, only focused on how she gets oddly giddy when acknowledging it out loud.
Which is good since the reaction never comes. Jinki only swallows, scoops up another spoonful, and gives a calm shrug. “Of course you are.”
“Lee Jinki!” Gwiboon actually drops the tub of mint and chocolate chip ice cream, and if it wasn’t for Jinki’s surprisingly good catching skills it would end up on the floor. It doesn’t, though, and Jinki goes on happily devouring the sweet treat, while Gwiboon gapes at him. “What do you mean of course you are? This is an epiphany! It’s a realization! It’s something I’ve thought about long and hard!”
“I could make a joke about that last bit,” Jinki winks, “but I’m going to spare you.” He doesn’t turn even the slightest bit more serious, his eyes sparkling as he looks at her amusedly. “C’mon Gwiboon, you can’t be this daft. You’ve been head over heels for the guy for weeks now. It’s not news to anyone who’s seen you two as much as look at each other. You’re disgusting, really, come to think of it.”
“Stop that.” Gwiboon frowns and pulls the fluffy blanket off the backrest of the couch, wrapping it around herself as she pulls her legs close to her chest. “I thought it was a new revelation, honestly. Like,” she sighs, “I don’t do this whole falling in love thing. It’s hard enough to even date with parents like mine, and this makes it just… a million times harder.”
“I can still cover for you, you know that,” Jinki offers, even though he barely spares her a glance.
“I know.” Gwiboon nods. She really does know. But yet at the same time, she doesn’t want that anymore. This thing with Minho feels much more serious than she’d ever expected for it to be, and she decides it’s about time she acts like an adult about it. “But you don’t need to. I’m… I’m going to take him to dad’s birthday party next month.”
At that, she gains the reaction she initially expected for her big revelation. Jinki almost chokes, only recovering when she pats his back hard with her palm for a while. Sputtering, he straightens, looking honestly confused. “You’re going to bring him to the formal dinner? Gwiboon, that’s about as serious as announcing you’re engaged.”
“I know,” she shrugs a bit and this time, the pleasantly nervous tingles turn into a little more severe anxiousness. “But c’mon. I’ve met his parents. They’re asking him about grandbabies, for god’s sake! And I might not be ready to blow up and look like I swallowed a beach ball, or even get married, but I …I really am in love,” she pauses, offering a van smile. “I really want to make actual effort, you know? I want my parents to know he’s a part of my life now, and might be for a long time.”
“You do realize this is the first boyfriend you’ve brought home since you were still underage,” Jinki asks. He’s grinning though, in a way that is incredibly infectious and she can’t help but return it. “Your parents didn’t really give that poor boy a great welcome, from what I can remember.”
“Yeah they didn’t,” Gwiboon laughs. “But Minho is an adult. He can handle a few icy stares and degrading comments. I don’t think it’ll scare him off. I mean, I heard the word babies and am not running yet so he’d better be as chill as I am about this.”
“You are being uncharacteristically calm about that, I got to admit.” Jinki joins the laughter. “Just wait. Soon he’ll knock you up and you won’t even mind.”
At that, he receives the cruellest punishment of them all: what’s left of the tub of half-melted ice cream dumped right on top of his head. His shriek is anything but manly.
“What are you brooding about?” Gwiboon whispers, sliding an arm around Minho’s shoulders as she sits down precariously on the armrest of his chair. Automatically his arm finds its way around her waist to keep her balanced. It earns him a quick kiss in the corner of his mouth, and it does ease his frown a little bit.
He sighs, puts his pen on the table and runs his fingers through his hair. It stands up in every possible direction, and Gwiboon can’t help but pat it down a little bit, as adorable as it is. “I don’t have enough time,” Minho says at length, “I can’t keep running the garage like this. I need to do all of the bookkeeping, Jjong had to cut his hours again and the cars won’t fix themselves.” He closes his eyes, sighing a little.
“Can’t you hire someone else to work with the cars? Or hire a secretary?” Gwiboon asks, idly toying with a strand of Minho’s dark hair. “You wouldn’t need to work twelve hour days then.”
“I can’t afford it,” Minho confesses. “If I could get the business perk up a bit I might be able to hire another mechanic, or a secretary, but not both. And I think we’d need both.” He leans back in his seat, sighing contently when she begins to slowly massage his scalp.
There’s brief silence, before Gwiboon taps Minho’s head to gain his attention. “I could do it. The bookkeeping, I mean. Not the cars, please don’t make me fix the cars if you want anything to work afterwards.”
Minho’s eyes fly wide in surprise. “What? You?”
“Yes,” Gwiboon says and rolls her eyes, “me. I’m in business school, idiot. I am going to have a degree in seven months from now. And most of us end up as secretaries anyway. I’d rather do it for a business I actually am sort of invested in already.”
At first, Minho seems to brighten up, but then sighs and closes off again, resigned. “I… I really appreciate the thought, Gwiboon, but I can’t. I can’t afford to pay you right now.”
“Who says you need to pay me?” she asks. “C’mon. I’m not offering because I’m short on cash. I want to help you. And don’t-” He tries to interrupt her, but she raises her voice and shuts him up with a finger to his lips. “Don’t even try to argue. I’ll start working first thing tomorrow, and you’ll start paying me once we’ve managed to get the business running. Okay?”
It’s a question, but it doesn’t really leave many options for answers. Minho knows he’ll have to agree, unless he wants to listen to her go on about it until he does. Then again, it’s not like he even wants to say no. He’d feel a lot better if he could pay her, straight from the beginning, but he is determined to pay his debts eventually. The thought is getting more and more appealing the longer he thinks of it, and he doesn’t even try to fight the smile that spreads on his face.
“I take it that the moronic grin means ‘yes please Gwiboon, the light of my life, save me from this rut’. Am I wrong?” Gwiboon loses the sarcastic tone of voice somewhere halfway through imitating Minho’s voice, and bursts into laughter as he genuinely looks a little too happy about the thought. “Seriously, I know I’m saving your gorgeous ass, but why are you that excited about it?”
“Because,” Minho drops his voice low, the exact tone he knows will make her shudder. He uses both of his arms to pull her properly on his lap, facing him, and scrapes his teeth down the side of her neck. She follows the movement willingly, getting herself comfortable, and only after a slow kiss Minho goes on with his explanation. “What kind of a man wouldn’t dream of having a smoking hot secretary?”
Gwiboon laughs. “I hope you’re not under the illusion that we’ll have dirty sex on the desk every time you just happen to feel like it. I need to get some work done too, remember?” She says that, but inwardly already plans on what to wear to get the strongest reaction out of Minho. A pencil skirt and high heels can work miracles, and she knows she can pull off the sexy secretary look better than any porn star could.
“You can work while I bend you over the desk,” Minho replies, cockily. It should earn him a slap, but instead he gains another slow, sloppy kiss. Neither of them can stop grinning, or kissing, and it seems that a not a lot of work will be done that evening.
The idea actually turns out to be as brilliant as it seemed. Gwiboon still has to attend her classes but she finds enough free time to work at the garage and keep everything in order. Having actual knowledge of how to do things helps, so she’s a lot faster than Minho who only had what little experience had taught him. Gwiboon can’t help but think what a good team they make, in every possible way, and she’s not sure if she should be slightly worried about how giddy it makes her.
She hasn’t met Minho’s parents after the dinner, but somehow Minho’s mother has ended up with her phone number since she contacts her every now and then. She’s only called Gwiboon twice, to ask how she’s doing, but she keeps texting her randomly at times, and somehow always manages to make Gwiboon smile. It’s not intrusive, Mrs Choi made sure to ask if it’s alright the first time she called, and Gwiboon didn’t really find it in herself to say no.
Gwiboon is beginning to feel she has more of a connection with Minho’s mother than her own, a thought that sort of terrifies her. She hasn’t met her own parents in months, the only contact being the constant pressuring phone calls from them.
She really needs time off to recover from that so she spends an evening holed up in her apartment. She’d go to Jinki’s but he’s been increasingly busy with his new mysterious boyfriend, so he’s not around. So she camps on the couch, wrapped in a blanket and her laptop balanced on her knees, as she keeps pestering all of her friends with random messages. It’s amusing, and whenever she gets a reaction out of one of them it manages to make her relax a little more. She knows it’s no use getting so worked up over her parents and their expectations, but she needs to unwind and forget them at times.
Suddenly, Skype gives an alert for someone signing in, and before Gwiboon has time to even properly process that there’s already an incoming call. She accepts, and a window with Boa’s face pops up. She’s grinning and waves at Gwiboon, looking impeccable and ready to go out, instead of sitting at home at a computer. “Hey! I’ve only got an hour, but we haven’t talked in ages! And I know you, you only harass everyone with random photos when you’re upset. So,” she shrugs, “what’s up?”
“Nothing,” Gwiboon sighs defiantly. She crosses her arms, but only for a second as she knows it’ll just make her look like a petulant child. “It’s the usual parent-drama. They want me to marry Jinki and stop being a pain in their asses and get a degree and work in the family business. None of which will ever happen.” She gives the short summary, knowing they’ve been over this enough times.
Immediately Boa’s chirpy expression melts into a concerned one, and she leans a bit closer to her computer screen. “Oh honey, is it getting worse?”
“Yeah, sort of,” Gwiboon admits with a frown. She briefly considers ranting about the latest lectures she’d gotten from her father, but then decides against it. Instead, she blurts out what’s been on her mind ever since she told Jinki about it. “It’s dad’s birthday next week. And I’m going to bring Minho.”
Everyone knows that Mr Kim’s birthday is the event of the year. It’s where only his most important business associates and his family are invited, so it’s in no way a small scale thing. Which is one of the reasons Boa is actually stunned into silence for a moment. “Whoa. Wow, Boonie, are you sure you want to put him through that?”
“It’s only fair!” Gwiboon insists. She’s made up her mind about this, long ago. “I’ve met his parents and he’s included me in his life in every way possible. He hasn’t even met any of my friends, nor my parents, and I… I just want him to know I’m serious okay. And what could be more serious than bringing him to meet my parents?”
Boa snorts. “Well, considering they’re your parents it’s pretty much the best sign of devotion you can give. I mean, no offense, but they’re not exactly welcoming. It won’t be a walk in the park.”
“I just hope they won’t disown me on the spot, too.” Gwiboon laughs. She didn’t even know she could sound that bitter.
“C’mon! It’ll be fine!” Boa switches back to her cheery self like it’s nothing, but that’s something so her that it serves to calm Gwiboon down considerably. “Besides, if they do, you have a secure job offer right here,” she goes on. “Bring Minho, too, I’m sure he’d make a fabulous model! At least the photos you showed had both me and Zhou Mi drooling.”
It sounds like a joke, and for the most part it is, but there’s a hint of seriousness in it too and Gwiboon knows she’d be welcome there. She also knows she might even take up on the offer, if it wasn’t for her studies, for Jinki and for Minho keeping her here. She feels like she’s gained at least some semblance of control over her life now, and she doesn’t think she’s ready to abandon everything and fly off to China. With or without Minho.
Yet, she chuckles and nods. “Yeah, I guess so. Look, don’t let me keep you from …wherever you’re going. I’ll call you soon, okay?” They exchange their goodbyes, along with a few quick pieces of juicy gossip on Boa’s end, before cutting the call.
Gwiboon spends the rest of the evening dozing off on the couch. She’s not able to completely shake off the nervousness, but she’s determined. Minho deserves to be included in her life in all the ways she can offer, and this is a big step for her. She just hopes it’ll go better than she suspects it will.
It still takes two days for Gwiboon to collect enough courage to actually suggest Minho that he’d attend the birthday party. She knows everyone is supposed to bring a date, so she only tells her mother she’s bringing someone and refuses to elaborate on that. Usually she used to just go with Jinki, as neither of them has really wanted to bring their current significant other to the formal dinner before.
This time, it’s going to be different. And Gwiboon wishes with all her heart that her parents will have the decency to act at least polite around Minho, regardless of what they think of him. Even if she already knows they will disapprove, she hopes she can somehow manage to turn their minds, make them see how charming Minho can actually be.
When Gwiboon lets herself inside Minho’s apartment, she immediately drops her bag and kicks off her shoes by the door, with enough clatter that she’s certain her presence has been noted. That’s nothing out of the ordinary for them. There’s a delicious scent wafting from the kitchen that lures her in, making her stomach grumble and protest the lack of nutrition it’s been put through.
She heads straight towards the promise of food, and when she spots Minho by the stove her heart does a little happy flip in her chest. She sneaks behind Minho, wraps her arms around him and rises on her tiptoes to press her nose against the nape of his neck. “Good evening,” she murmurs, “what are you cooking?”
“It’s just soup,” Minho says. The smile is audible in his voice, though, and he even leans back a little bit to get closer. “I didn’t know when you’d be in and I figured it’s easiest to heat up. But your timing is perfect.”
“I’m in heaven!” Gwiboon announces and squeezes Minho tighter, before releasing him to go find the bowls in the cupboards. “You wouldn’t believe how badly we’d starve if I was the one to do the cooking. God I hate it and I fail at it more often than not.” She’s exaggerating, as she does know how to feed herself if needed, but she only knows how to cook simple edible stuff and Minho happens to be marginally better. Yet she makes a show out of it, to ensure that she doesn’t need to spend any more time in the kitchen than she absolutely has to.
“Stop that,” Minho orders, but there’s a sort of an embarrassed flush rising on his cheeks and in the back of his neck. “You know that what I make is just decent, I’m not a gourmet chef.”
“No, you’re not,” she readily agrees, and already takes a seat at the table as he brings the soup over, beginning to fill their bowls. “But you could be. Honestly, you actually like it, and you already are better than me so you could be brilliant if you wanted to.”
Minho only hums, before sitting down and attending his food. It’s silent as they both are way too hungry to focus on anything else than filling their stomachs right now, and only after they’re halfway through the meal Gwiboon speaks up again. “There’s this dinner next week,” she starts, slowly, as she doesn’t really know how to bring the topic up properly, “and I was hoping you’d accompany me.”
“What kind of a dinner is it?” he asks, already suspicious.
Gwiboon decides to just get it all out in one go. “It’s my father’s birthday party. I don’t know if you’ve heard but it’s pretty much where all the fancy people gather every year for an extremely exquisite but boring dinner, and to be invited is an honour some people would be ready to murder for.” Okay maybe she’s exaggerating a little, again, but the general idea still stands true. “I’m not going to lie to you, it will be the longest evening of your life, and the food will be good but the company not so much. But…”
She looks up, and he’s paused eating as well, only looking back at her expectantly. “I would like for you to meet my parents,” she finishes quickly, offering him a van smile.
“Gwiboon,” Minho sighs, biting his lower lip as he considers the reply. “If you want me to, I’ll meet your parents, of course I will. But are you sure you want to do that at a fancy dinner? You know I can’t do those things. I’ve never even been to a fancy restaurant, and definitely never attended a party where I’m supposed to know a salad fork from a regular one.”
“Look, I don’t meet them very much.” Gwiboon shrugs. “We’re not as close as your family is. They only like me when they can show me off to their so-called-friends and brag about how our family is better than theirs. And in the birthday party, they’d be forced to socialize, if we invite them for a dinner somewhere their focus will be solely on you. And trust me, it’s better.”
Minho looks down at his hands, twisting his fingers for a moment. He takes his time to reply, and when he does his voice is silent. “You’re already sure they’ll hate me?”
“Oh, Minho,” she hurries to reply. “It’s not you, really.” She reaches out to place her hands on his, giving them a small squeeze. “They’d be disappointed no matter who I brought home, unless it was Jinki or the heir of some successful and filthy rich family. Their standards are ridiculous.”
“Why do you want to bring me there?” He asks, but finally looks up at her. “If you already know it’ll only cause troubles.”
“Because I have a good feeling about this,” she smiles, “about us. And if I want to stick with you, they should know. And hey,” she fakes a chirpy tone, although she’s not quite as positive as she wants to appear, “maybe they’ll surprise me, or you’ll charm them off their feet. Who knows, right?”
“Yeah,” he laughs, dryly, “who knows.”
“Minho,” Gwiboon tries to plead once more. “Your mom sends me pictures of cute dogs she sees on the streets. Even your dad texted me once. Your family accepted me the moment you introduced me to them. I can’t promise you the same, but I want to do this. I want to show my parents you’re important to me.”
That, finally, makes him smile genuinely. He turns his hands around to be able to grab Gwiboon’s and twine their fingers together. “Alright. I’ll go with you.”
Gwiboon returns the smile. “Thank you.”
Days go by alarmingly fast and before Minho even knows it’s already the day of Gwiboon’s father’s birthday party. He closes the garage early that day, and asks Jonghyun over with the excuse of helping him to look as presentable as possible. The truth is, though, he is nervous. He is really nervous and he just wants to have some distraction, so the task naturally falls on his best friend.
After their visit to the opera, Gwiboon had kept her word and had indeed bought three fitted suits for Minho. One of them charcoal black, one a dark blue and one lighter grey. They’d been called something like shimmering sapphire and pearly in the store but honestly, Minho had just rolled his eyes on those descriptions. He tries on each one of them, in order, and makes Jonghyun tell him which one he should wear.
“Honestly,” Jonghyun yawns from the couch, looking like he’s about to fall asleep, even with the bottle of beer dangling from his fingers. “It’s not a funeral. You should wear the blue one. You’re overthinking this anyway! I don’t get why you’re so nervous about a dinner.”
“It’s not just a dinner,” Minho insists, but carefully slips out of the grey suit jacket anyway and hangs it up. “I’m meeting her parents. I need to impress them and I have a feeling it’s not going to be easy.” He chews on his lower lip, a nervous habit he can’t shake, and sets on getting dressed again.
“Parents are like that,” Jonghyun shrugs. “Taeyeon’s parents hated me too. They said I was bad influence on her.” He’s grinning as he thinks back on it and they both know he was bad influence. Not that Taeyeon wasn’t potentially worse. Besides, Jonghyun gets along with Taeyeon’s parents perfectly fine nowadays.
Minho can’t hold back a light chuckle. He shakes his head. “You were sixteen, Jjong. This is not the same. And they disapproved of you because you skipped class like a pro and they thought you’d bring their daughter’s academic career down. This is different. They will disapprove the moment they hear what I do for a living, just because I’m not some big company hotshot.”
“Does it matter so much?” Jonghyun scrunches up his face at the tie Minho grabs and shakes his head. Without commenting on that he sets his beer down and gets up with a sigh, snatching the tie away from his friend to pick him another one. “Honestly. She won’t dump you if her parents dislike you. Why would she?”
That makes Minho fall silent, and it takes him a good while to respond. Even then, he’s got this almost constipated look on his face, and he refuses to look straight at Jonghyun. “She might.”
“What do you mean ‘she might’?” Jonghyun frowns. “You’re making no sense. I thought you two were doing well!”
“We are! But.” Minho pauses. “But her parents pay for… everything she has. She’s still studying and doesn’t have a job. And she’s so used to financial stability, which I can’t guarantee for her. Or I can,” he snorts humourlessly, “but it’ll be a steady low income that wouldn’t pay for her designer stuff.” He knows that Gwiboon cares about him, and it already stopped being casual a long time ago. Yet he also knows how attached Gwiboon is to her lifestyle, and even if she has enjoyed some of the poor-people-things Minho has showed her, she probably wouldn’t want to give up on her wealth.
Or maybe Minho is overthinking things. Again. Yet he can’t shut his brains up.
“Hey,” Jonghyun tries to be as encouraging as he can. He tightens Minho’s tie, before patting him on the shoulder. “Stop being so negative about everything. Maybe you’ll just charm them all off their feet. Or maybe she doesn’t care either way. C’mon, it’s not like you to give up! You’re usually the bullhead that doesn’t stop even when defeat seems inevitable. Where did that side go!?”
It might not be the most conventional prep speech but it works, and Minho can’t help but grin at his friend. “It’s still right here, I promise. I’m going to go there and show them what I’m made of.”
“That’s my man!” Jonghyun praises, even giving a round of applause. “Go and fight for your girl.”
“I just,” Minho begins, his expression turning softer, “I really think she might be the one, you know?” Sappy as it sounds, there hasn’t been anyone before who would’ve made him feel like he now does. Never before has he been able to imagine a future with someone as easily as he now can. And if that doesn’t make her special, he has no idea what would.
Jonghyun beams. “See? Everything will work out perfectly!”
Chapter 7
check the masterlist for more fic! | follow me on tumblr~ | add this journal for updates
I’m so sorry it took me so long to update :( I’ve been sick, busy and tired, so it hasn’t really been a good combination. I’ll try to be faster with the next part!
@DW.
Author: fonulyn
Rating: NC17 (overall)
Pairing: Minho/girl!Key (Minho/Gwiboon)
Other characters: Jonghyun, Onew, Zhou Mi, Boa, girl!Taemin (some are around more than others)
Warnings: --
Wordcount: 47 200 (overall); 4525 for this part
Disclaimer: I own no one, only my dirty imagination.
Summary: When Gwiboon's car breaks down she expects the repairs to be an annoying hassle. Not in her wildest dreams had she hoped for an illegally hot mechanic to be there to ease her hardships.
Comments: Previous parts: Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5
There is something that clearly results from meeting Minho’s parents though, and it sends Gwiboon into a slight crisis. She barricades herself on Jinki’s couch the following Saturday evening, with a huge tub of ice cream, just because she knows he enjoys stealing a spoonful or two from her every now and then during their so called serious talks. Which more often than not is random complaining about everyday life, but hey, it feels much more gratifying to call it something different.
What she enjoys the most is when she gets to drop bombs in the middle of Jinki stuffing a gigantic spoonful of ice cream in his mouth. Every time she has something shocking to tell him, she waits until the perfect moment and then watches him try to cough up little bits of the cold mass from his lungs. That’s exactly what she does this time, too, even though there’s this certain excited tingling in the pit of her stomach that she doesn’t remember feeling in …forever.
“I’m in love.” It feels weird saying the words and she almost forgets to look for Jinki’s reaction, only focused on how she gets oddly giddy when acknowledging it out loud.
Which is good since the reaction never comes. Jinki only swallows, scoops up another spoonful, and gives a calm shrug. “Of course you are.”
“Lee Jinki!” Gwiboon actually drops the tub of mint and chocolate chip ice cream, and if it wasn’t for Jinki’s surprisingly good catching skills it would end up on the floor. It doesn’t, though, and Jinki goes on happily devouring the sweet treat, while Gwiboon gapes at him. “What do you mean of course you are? This is an epiphany! It’s a realization! It’s something I’ve thought about long and hard!”
“I could make a joke about that last bit,” Jinki winks, “but I’m going to spare you.” He doesn’t turn even the slightest bit more serious, his eyes sparkling as he looks at her amusedly. “C’mon Gwiboon, you can’t be this daft. You’ve been head over heels for the guy for weeks now. It’s not news to anyone who’s seen you two as much as look at each other. You’re disgusting, really, come to think of it.”
“Stop that.” Gwiboon frowns and pulls the fluffy blanket off the backrest of the couch, wrapping it around herself as she pulls her legs close to her chest. “I thought it was a new revelation, honestly. Like,” she sighs, “I don’t do this whole falling in love thing. It’s hard enough to even date with parents like mine, and this makes it just… a million times harder.”
“I can still cover for you, you know that,” Jinki offers, even though he barely spares her a glance.
“I know.” Gwiboon nods. She really does know. But yet at the same time, she doesn’t want that anymore. This thing with Minho feels much more serious than she’d ever expected for it to be, and she decides it’s about time she acts like an adult about it. “But you don’t need to. I’m… I’m going to take him to dad’s birthday party next month.”
At that, she gains the reaction she initially expected for her big revelation. Jinki almost chokes, only recovering when she pats his back hard with her palm for a while. Sputtering, he straightens, looking honestly confused. “You’re going to bring him to the formal dinner? Gwiboon, that’s about as serious as announcing you’re engaged.”
“I know,” she shrugs a bit and this time, the pleasantly nervous tingles turn into a little more severe anxiousness. “But c’mon. I’ve met his parents. They’re asking him about grandbabies, for god’s sake! And I might not be ready to blow up and look like I swallowed a beach ball, or even get married, but I …I really am in love,” she pauses, offering a van smile. “I really want to make actual effort, you know? I want my parents to know he’s a part of my life now, and might be for a long time.”
“You do realize this is the first boyfriend you’ve brought home since you were still underage,” Jinki asks. He’s grinning though, in a way that is incredibly infectious and she can’t help but return it. “Your parents didn’t really give that poor boy a great welcome, from what I can remember.”
“Yeah they didn’t,” Gwiboon laughs. “But Minho is an adult. He can handle a few icy stares and degrading comments. I don’t think it’ll scare him off. I mean, I heard the word babies and am not running yet so he’d better be as chill as I am about this.”
“You are being uncharacteristically calm about that, I got to admit.” Jinki joins the laughter. “Just wait. Soon he’ll knock you up and you won’t even mind.”
At that, he receives the cruellest punishment of them all: what’s left of the tub of half-melted ice cream dumped right on top of his head. His shriek is anything but manly.
“What are you brooding about?” Gwiboon whispers, sliding an arm around Minho’s shoulders as she sits down precariously on the armrest of his chair. Automatically his arm finds its way around her waist to keep her balanced. It earns him a quick kiss in the corner of his mouth, and it does ease his frown a little bit.
He sighs, puts his pen on the table and runs his fingers through his hair. It stands up in every possible direction, and Gwiboon can’t help but pat it down a little bit, as adorable as it is. “I don’t have enough time,” Minho says at length, “I can’t keep running the garage like this. I need to do all of the bookkeeping, Jjong had to cut his hours again and the cars won’t fix themselves.” He closes his eyes, sighing a little.
“Can’t you hire someone else to work with the cars? Or hire a secretary?” Gwiboon asks, idly toying with a strand of Minho’s dark hair. “You wouldn’t need to work twelve hour days then.”
“I can’t afford it,” Minho confesses. “If I could get the business perk up a bit I might be able to hire another mechanic, or a secretary, but not both. And I think we’d need both.” He leans back in his seat, sighing contently when she begins to slowly massage his scalp.
There’s brief silence, before Gwiboon taps Minho’s head to gain his attention. “I could do it. The bookkeeping, I mean. Not the cars, please don’t make me fix the cars if you want anything to work afterwards.”
Minho’s eyes fly wide in surprise. “What? You?”
“Yes,” Gwiboon says and rolls her eyes, “me. I’m in business school, idiot. I am going to have a degree in seven months from now. And most of us end up as secretaries anyway. I’d rather do it for a business I actually am sort of invested in already.”
At first, Minho seems to brighten up, but then sighs and closes off again, resigned. “I… I really appreciate the thought, Gwiboon, but I can’t. I can’t afford to pay you right now.”
“Who says you need to pay me?” she asks. “C’mon. I’m not offering because I’m short on cash. I want to help you. And don’t-” He tries to interrupt her, but she raises her voice and shuts him up with a finger to his lips. “Don’t even try to argue. I’ll start working first thing tomorrow, and you’ll start paying me once we’ve managed to get the business running. Okay?”
It’s a question, but it doesn’t really leave many options for answers. Minho knows he’ll have to agree, unless he wants to listen to her go on about it until he does. Then again, it’s not like he even wants to say no. He’d feel a lot better if he could pay her, straight from the beginning, but he is determined to pay his debts eventually. The thought is getting more and more appealing the longer he thinks of it, and he doesn’t even try to fight the smile that spreads on his face.
“I take it that the moronic grin means ‘yes please Gwiboon, the light of my life, save me from this rut’. Am I wrong?” Gwiboon loses the sarcastic tone of voice somewhere halfway through imitating Minho’s voice, and bursts into laughter as he genuinely looks a little too happy about the thought. “Seriously, I know I’m saving your gorgeous ass, but why are you that excited about it?”
“Because,” Minho drops his voice low, the exact tone he knows will make her shudder. He uses both of his arms to pull her properly on his lap, facing him, and scrapes his teeth down the side of her neck. She follows the movement willingly, getting herself comfortable, and only after a slow kiss Minho goes on with his explanation. “What kind of a man wouldn’t dream of having a smoking hot secretary?”
Gwiboon laughs. “I hope you’re not under the illusion that we’ll have dirty sex on the desk every time you just happen to feel like it. I need to get some work done too, remember?” She says that, but inwardly already plans on what to wear to get the strongest reaction out of Minho. A pencil skirt and high heels can work miracles, and she knows she can pull off the sexy secretary look better than any porn star could.
“You can work while I bend you over the desk,” Minho replies, cockily. It should earn him a slap, but instead he gains another slow, sloppy kiss. Neither of them can stop grinning, or kissing, and it seems that a not a lot of work will be done that evening.
The idea actually turns out to be as brilliant as it seemed. Gwiboon still has to attend her classes but she finds enough free time to work at the garage and keep everything in order. Having actual knowledge of how to do things helps, so she’s a lot faster than Minho who only had what little experience had taught him. Gwiboon can’t help but think what a good team they make, in every possible way, and she’s not sure if she should be slightly worried about how giddy it makes her.
She hasn’t met Minho’s parents after the dinner, but somehow Minho’s mother has ended up with her phone number since she contacts her every now and then. She’s only called Gwiboon twice, to ask how she’s doing, but she keeps texting her randomly at times, and somehow always manages to make Gwiboon smile. It’s not intrusive, Mrs Choi made sure to ask if it’s alright the first time she called, and Gwiboon didn’t really find it in herself to say no.
Gwiboon is beginning to feel she has more of a connection with Minho’s mother than her own, a thought that sort of terrifies her. She hasn’t met her own parents in months, the only contact being the constant pressuring phone calls from them.
She really needs time off to recover from that so she spends an evening holed up in her apartment. She’d go to Jinki’s but he’s been increasingly busy with his new mysterious boyfriend, so he’s not around. So she camps on the couch, wrapped in a blanket and her laptop balanced on her knees, as she keeps pestering all of her friends with random messages. It’s amusing, and whenever she gets a reaction out of one of them it manages to make her relax a little more. She knows it’s no use getting so worked up over her parents and their expectations, but she needs to unwind and forget them at times.
Suddenly, Skype gives an alert for someone signing in, and before Gwiboon has time to even properly process that there’s already an incoming call. She accepts, and a window with Boa’s face pops up. She’s grinning and waves at Gwiboon, looking impeccable and ready to go out, instead of sitting at home at a computer. “Hey! I’ve only got an hour, but we haven’t talked in ages! And I know you, you only harass everyone with random photos when you’re upset. So,” she shrugs, “what’s up?”
“Nothing,” Gwiboon sighs defiantly. She crosses her arms, but only for a second as she knows it’ll just make her look like a petulant child. “It’s the usual parent-drama. They want me to marry Jinki and stop being a pain in their asses and get a degree and work in the family business. None of which will ever happen.” She gives the short summary, knowing they’ve been over this enough times.
Immediately Boa’s chirpy expression melts into a concerned one, and she leans a bit closer to her computer screen. “Oh honey, is it getting worse?”
“Yeah, sort of,” Gwiboon admits with a frown. She briefly considers ranting about the latest lectures she’d gotten from her father, but then decides against it. Instead, she blurts out what’s been on her mind ever since she told Jinki about it. “It’s dad’s birthday next week. And I’m going to bring Minho.”
Everyone knows that Mr Kim’s birthday is the event of the year. It’s where only his most important business associates and his family are invited, so it’s in no way a small scale thing. Which is one of the reasons Boa is actually stunned into silence for a moment. “Whoa. Wow, Boonie, are you sure you want to put him through that?”
“It’s only fair!” Gwiboon insists. She’s made up her mind about this, long ago. “I’ve met his parents and he’s included me in his life in every way possible. He hasn’t even met any of my friends, nor my parents, and I… I just want him to know I’m serious okay. And what could be more serious than bringing him to meet my parents?”
Boa snorts. “Well, considering they’re your parents it’s pretty much the best sign of devotion you can give. I mean, no offense, but they’re not exactly welcoming. It won’t be a walk in the park.”
“I just hope they won’t disown me on the spot, too.” Gwiboon laughs. She didn’t even know she could sound that bitter.
“C’mon! It’ll be fine!” Boa switches back to her cheery self like it’s nothing, but that’s something so her that it serves to calm Gwiboon down considerably. “Besides, if they do, you have a secure job offer right here,” she goes on. “Bring Minho, too, I’m sure he’d make a fabulous model! At least the photos you showed had both me and Zhou Mi drooling.”
It sounds like a joke, and for the most part it is, but there’s a hint of seriousness in it too and Gwiboon knows she’d be welcome there. She also knows she might even take up on the offer, if it wasn’t for her studies, for Jinki and for Minho keeping her here. She feels like she’s gained at least some semblance of control over her life now, and she doesn’t think she’s ready to abandon everything and fly off to China. With or without Minho.
Yet, she chuckles and nods. “Yeah, I guess so. Look, don’t let me keep you from …wherever you’re going. I’ll call you soon, okay?” They exchange their goodbyes, along with a few quick pieces of juicy gossip on Boa’s end, before cutting the call.
Gwiboon spends the rest of the evening dozing off on the couch. She’s not able to completely shake off the nervousness, but she’s determined. Minho deserves to be included in her life in all the ways she can offer, and this is a big step for her. She just hopes it’ll go better than she suspects it will.
It still takes two days for Gwiboon to collect enough courage to actually suggest Minho that he’d attend the birthday party. She knows everyone is supposed to bring a date, so she only tells her mother she’s bringing someone and refuses to elaborate on that. Usually she used to just go with Jinki, as neither of them has really wanted to bring their current significant other to the formal dinner before.
This time, it’s going to be different. And Gwiboon wishes with all her heart that her parents will have the decency to act at least polite around Minho, regardless of what they think of him. Even if she already knows they will disapprove, she hopes she can somehow manage to turn their minds, make them see how charming Minho can actually be.
When Gwiboon lets herself inside Minho’s apartment, she immediately drops her bag and kicks off her shoes by the door, with enough clatter that she’s certain her presence has been noted. That’s nothing out of the ordinary for them. There’s a delicious scent wafting from the kitchen that lures her in, making her stomach grumble and protest the lack of nutrition it’s been put through.
She heads straight towards the promise of food, and when she spots Minho by the stove her heart does a little happy flip in her chest. She sneaks behind Minho, wraps her arms around him and rises on her tiptoes to press her nose against the nape of his neck. “Good evening,” she murmurs, “what are you cooking?”
“It’s just soup,” Minho says. The smile is audible in his voice, though, and he even leans back a little bit to get closer. “I didn’t know when you’d be in and I figured it’s easiest to heat up. But your timing is perfect.”
“I’m in heaven!” Gwiboon announces and squeezes Minho tighter, before releasing him to go find the bowls in the cupboards. “You wouldn’t believe how badly we’d starve if I was the one to do the cooking. God I hate it and I fail at it more often than not.” She’s exaggerating, as she does know how to feed herself if needed, but she only knows how to cook simple edible stuff and Minho happens to be marginally better. Yet she makes a show out of it, to ensure that she doesn’t need to spend any more time in the kitchen than she absolutely has to.
“Stop that,” Minho orders, but there’s a sort of an embarrassed flush rising on his cheeks and in the back of his neck. “You know that what I make is just decent, I’m not a gourmet chef.”
“No, you’re not,” she readily agrees, and already takes a seat at the table as he brings the soup over, beginning to fill their bowls. “But you could be. Honestly, you actually like it, and you already are better than me so you could be brilliant if you wanted to.”
Minho only hums, before sitting down and attending his food. It’s silent as they both are way too hungry to focus on anything else than filling their stomachs right now, and only after they’re halfway through the meal Gwiboon speaks up again. “There’s this dinner next week,” she starts, slowly, as she doesn’t really know how to bring the topic up properly, “and I was hoping you’d accompany me.”
“What kind of a dinner is it?” he asks, already suspicious.
Gwiboon decides to just get it all out in one go. “It’s my father’s birthday party. I don’t know if you’ve heard but it’s pretty much where all the fancy people gather every year for an extremely exquisite but boring dinner, and to be invited is an honour some people would be ready to murder for.” Okay maybe she’s exaggerating a little, again, but the general idea still stands true. “I’m not going to lie to you, it will be the longest evening of your life, and the food will be good but the company not so much. But…”
She looks up, and he’s paused eating as well, only looking back at her expectantly. “I would like for you to meet my parents,” she finishes quickly, offering him a van smile.
“Gwiboon,” Minho sighs, biting his lower lip as he considers the reply. “If you want me to, I’ll meet your parents, of course I will. But are you sure you want to do that at a fancy dinner? You know I can’t do those things. I’ve never even been to a fancy restaurant, and definitely never attended a party where I’m supposed to know a salad fork from a regular one.”
“Look, I don’t meet them very much.” Gwiboon shrugs. “We’re not as close as your family is. They only like me when they can show me off to their so-called-friends and brag about how our family is better than theirs. And in the birthday party, they’d be forced to socialize, if we invite them for a dinner somewhere their focus will be solely on you. And trust me, it’s better.”
Minho looks down at his hands, twisting his fingers for a moment. He takes his time to reply, and when he does his voice is silent. “You’re already sure they’ll hate me?”
“Oh, Minho,” she hurries to reply. “It’s not you, really.” She reaches out to place her hands on his, giving them a small squeeze. “They’d be disappointed no matter who I brought home, unless it was Jinki or the heir of some successful and filthy rich family. Their standards are ridiculous.”
“Why do you want to bring me there?” He asks, but finally looks up at her. “If you already know it’ll only cause troubles.”
“Because I have a good feeling about this,” she smiles, “about us. And if I want to stick with you, they should know. And hey,” she fakes a chirpy tone, although she’s not quite as positive as she wants to appear, “maybe they’ll surprise me, or you’ll charm them off their feet. Who knows, right?”
“Yeah,” he laughs, dryly, “who knows.”
“Minho,” Gwiboon tries to plead once more. “Your mom sends me pictures of cute dogs she sees on the streets. Even your dad texted me once. Your family accepted me the moment you introduced me to them. I can’t promise you the same, but I want to do this. I want to show my parents you’re important to me.”
That, finally, makes him smile genuinely. He turns his hands around to be able to grab Gwiboon’s and twine their fingers together. “Alright. I’ll go with you.”
Gwiboon returns the smile. “Thank you.”
Days go by alarmingly fast and before Minho even knows it’s already the day of Gwiboon’s father’s birthday party. He closes the garage early that day, and asks Jonghyun over with the excuse of helping him to look as presentable as possible. The truth is, though, he is nervous. He is really nervous and he just wants to have some distraction, so the task naturally falls on his best friend.
After their visit to the opera, Gwiboon had kept her word and had indeed bought three fitted suits for Minho. One of them charcoal black, one a dark blue and one lighter grey. They’d been called something like shimmering sapphire and pearly in the store but honestly, Minho had just rolled his eyes on those descriptions. He tries on each one of them, in order, and makes Jonghyun tell him which one he should wear.
“Honestly,” Jonghyun yawns from the couch, looking like he’s about to fall asleep, even with the bottle of beer dangling from his fingers. “It’s not a funeral. You should wear the blue one. You’re overthinking this anyway! I don’t get why you’re so nervous about a dinner.”
“It’s not just a dinner,” Minho insists, but carefully slips out of the grey suit jacket anyway and hangs it up. “I’m meeting her parents. I need to impress them and I have a feeling it’s not going to be easy.” He chews on his lower lip, a nervous habit he can’t shake, and sets on getting dressed again.
“Parents are like that,” Jonghyun shrugs. “Taeyeon’s parents hated me too. They said I was bad influence on her.” He’s grinning as he thinks back on it and they both know he was bad influence. Not that Taeyeon wasn’t potentially worse. Besides, Jonghyun gets along with Taeyeon’s parents perfectly fine nowadays.
Minho can’t hold back a light chuckle. He shakes his head. “You were sixteen, Jjong. This is not the same. And they disapproved of you because you skipped class like a pro and they thought you’d bring their daughter’s academic career down. This is different. They will disapprove the moment they hear what I do for a living, just because I’m not some big company hotshot.”
“Does it matter so much?” Jonghyun scrunches up his face at the tie Minho grabs and shakes his head. Without commenting on that he sets his beer down and gets up with a sigh, snatching the tie away from his friend to pick him another one. “Honestly. She won’t dump you if her parents dislike you. Why would she?”
That makes Minho fall silent, and it takes him a good while to respond. Even then, he’s got this almost constipated look on his face, and he refuses to look straight at Jonghyun. “She might.”
“What do you mean ‘she might’?” Jonghyun frowns. “You’re making no sense. I thought you two were doing well!”
“We are! But.” Minho pauses. “But her parents pay for… everything she has. She’s still studying and doesn’t have a job. And she’s so used to financial stability, which I can’t guarantee for her. Or I can,” he snorts humourlessly, “but it’ll be a steady low income that wouldn’t pay for her designer stuff.” He knows that Gwiboon cares about him, and it already stopped being casual a long time ago. Yet he also knows how attached Gwiboon is to her lifestyle, and even if she has enjoyed some of the poor-people-things Minho has showed her, she probably wouldn’t want to give up on her wealth.
Or maybe Minho is overthinking things. Again. Yet he can’t shut his brains up.
“Hey,” Jonghyun tries to be as encouraging as he can. He tightens Minho’s tie, before patting him on the shoulder. “Stop being so negative about everything. Maybe you’ll just charm them all off their feet. Or maybe she doesn’t care either way. C’mon, it’s not like you to give up! You’re usually the bullhead that doesn’t stop even when defeat seems inevitable. Where did that side go!?”
It might not be the most conventional prep speech but it works, and Minho can’t help but grin at his friend. “It’s still right here, I promise. I’m going to go there and show them what I’m made of.”
“That’s my man!” Jonghyun praises, even giving a round of applause. “Go and fight for your girl.”
“I just,” Minho begins, his expression turning softer, “I really think she might be the one, you know?” Sappy as it sounds, there hasn’t been anyone before who would’ve made him feel like he now does. Never before has he been able to imagine a future with someone as easily as he now can. And if that doesn’t make her special, he has no idea what would.
Jonghyun beams. “See? Everything will work out perfectly!”
Chapter 7
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I’m so sorry it took me so long to update :( I’ve been sick, busy and tired, so it hasn’t really been a good combination. I’ll try to be faster with the next part!
@DW.