Chapter 23

Yandy: 12.21.15

Trevor peaked back in “She said come and bring ya friends.” He went back in.

I grabbed Joon’s and Hae-In’s arms and dragged them into the kitchen.

“There go my babies.” She gushed as she wiped her hands on her apron. When I caught sight of my mom I dropped their arms and squealed.

“Momma.” Sandy squealed as she beat me to her with a hug. I squeezed my way into her arms and she hugged us tight.

"Are you going to introduce me to these gentlemen?” She questioned with a raise of her eyebrow. Who? Oh shit, I forgot. I took a step back next to Joon as I rubbed the back of my neck with a sheepish smile.

“This is my boyfriend, Kim Jin-Joon” I pointed to Joon and his friend Hae-In.” I motion to Hae-In.

“Hello Mrs. Brown.” Has-In greeted with a slight bow “It's nice to meet you.”

“Hello Mrs. Brown,” Joon smiled at her and stopped mid bow before giving her a sheepish look before sticking his hand out “Thank you for having us.” He thanked.

“It was nothing.” She waved him off “Now put that hand down because I’m a hugger, come on in.” She held her arms out “You too.” She said to Hae-In.

They both hesitated before going in slowly only to be squished into a hug. I couldn't help but giggle at the faces they made when they were caught off guard.

“It's so nice to meet y'all.” She started to sway with them from side to side “Y’all can call me Ms. Yvette.”

They either nodded or grunted in response because she squeezed them again.

“Ma!” Sandy giggled, catching her attention.

She looked at us confused, “What girl.”

“They can’t breathe.” I pointed out before trying to get Joon out “And I would like for my boyfriend and friend to be alive.” I teased.

She squeezed them again before letting them go “These boys are strong and firm,” she waved us off “I doubt they felt a thing.” She went to another pot that was on the stove “Now go introduce them to everyone and tell Edna to come help me with dinner.” She ordered us “We havin fish.” She added.

“Yes ma’am.” Sandy and I chorus before turning to the guys.

“Follow us.” Sandy said as she started for the arch way. I watched Hae-In trail behind her then I got pulled after them. When I noticed it was Joon, I wiggled my hand out from him and caught up with Sandy. We led them to the living room but slowed down when they caught sight of the pictures on the wall.

We finally were about to go into the living room until I heard a gasp and turned to them only to find them semi paralyzed.

“What's up with y'all?” I asked as I tilt my head.

“That's a lot of people.” Have-In muttered

“I guess you weren't exaggerating.” Joon said as he shifted on his left leg.

“This is going to be fun.” Hae-In muttered as he looked over everyone in the room.

Sandy snorted “I told y’all so.” She grabbed both their arms “Now let's go.” She chimed as she pulled them into the room with her.

I noticed some of my family start to whisper when they caught sight of Joon and Hae-In, I took a deep breath before walking to Joon. This is going to be a long night.

Joon: 12.23.15

I glanced around the room, noticing that there weren't that many people from yesterday. Maybe because it was 10:36 in the morning or maybe because everyone had a late night. More people came after our arrival and some had to get a hotel room in the next city over. Hae-In and I shared a room with her brother Trevor who hid the pump for the blow up mattress. We knew he did it on purpose because he didn’t look sorry at all but it didn’t bother us because we were used to sleeping on flat surfaces. After threatening us about his sisters, which Hae-In was confused about because he wasn’t with Sandy like that, he turned the light off and left us in the dark.

My eyes finally caught sight of Yandy and I couldn't help but smile as I watched her laugh with her relatives. She seemed so different when she's with them, I mean she's still Yandy she's just more relaxed and feisty when she's with them. Admittedly I wanted to come with her so that I could lose attraction towards her, I thought seeing her in her natural habitat would make this go away but it's doing the opposite. Granted, I have a week left with her but I have a feeling that this plan will backfire.

I searched for Hae-In and saw that he was talking to her Aunt and cousin, well they were fawning over him and he was enjoying it. While we headed down here, he was debriefing me about our next target that was in Decatur. We had to kidnap some guy that was trying to move in on ‘our territory’. After he got done with that I shared with him my thoughts on the ways we could play this out. I didn’t feel like being the naive foreigner and neither did he so we went with our school selves.

Being in someone else's territory without them knowing is dangerous so for Hae-In and I to go running this morning along with Sandy and two of her cousins, Danica and Ryland,... that was probably not the best idea. They probably won't look too much into it and think we’re foreign exchange students to the closest University but we should lay low and not bring attention to ourselves. After meeting everyone yesterday, we conversed with a few of her family members and they were nice, they got loud sometimes but they would always end up laughing it off.

I stared into my cup thinking about what Yandy said to me yesterday, tell her the truth or leave her the fuck alone. I couldn’t leave her alone even if I wanted to so I’ll tell her the truth before I go, I’ll wait it out. A feeling went through me and I knew I was being watched, I decided to ignore it because I’ve been having that feeling since we got to her house. I noticed Hae-In walking my way so I scooted over and made space for him.

Hae-In took a seat next to me “I’ve been working on this new move.” Hae-In said, I raised an eyebrow as I took a sip of my drink “I want to show you.”

I nodded “Ok, where?” I asked.

He rubbed the back of his neck “I have no clue. We really didn’t get a tour of this place and there were too many people for me to sneak around at night.” He gestured to the room full of people.

I nodded in agreement then noticed that some people were looking over at us, probably wondering what we were talking about.

“You could ask your girlfriend.” He suggested, I tensed then sat my cup slowly. I didn’t want to talk to Yandy, not yet, not until I found a way I could put this into words. Since Hae-In doesn’t actually know what was going on between me and Yandy, it was the only thing I could do. I sighed inwardly and looked at the last place I saw her only to see that she was gone.

“She just went into the kitchen.” He pointed out.

I nodded “Alright. I’ll be back.” I got up and shuffled past a few people then walked into the kitchen.

There were a handful of people in the kitchen, some were mostly lounging around talking and others were eating at the island. I spotted Yandy eating at the island and made my way toward her, I watched as someone said something to her and she looked my way. Her eyes got big and she started coughing, everyone around her started laughing and she looked slightly embarrassed. I quickly patted her on the back while saying hello to everyone, when she stopped coughing I handed her what I assumed was her cup and she took a sip. I heard a couple of ‘awws’ and looked around us to see most of them looking at us.