Stereotypes | Lee Minho

14

I raised my head to look at Minho. Did he just call me beautiful? A slight blush appeared on my cheeks as I slowly realised the words he just said. Minho's mouth formed an 'O'. It didn't seem like he intended to say it out loud. But the expression on his face changed quickly when his eyes spotted something behind me. Minho frowned.

"Grandma? What are you doing here?" I tried to turn around, which turned out to be quite difficult since Minho's arms were still wrapped around me.

His grandmother was standing in the door frame, an amused smile placed on her face and arms crossed.

"Is that how you greet your beloved grandmother?" Sunyoung scolded her grandson, obviously trying not to smile. "I wanted to stop by for lunch but then I met your...friend, Minseo." The old woman said, emphasizing the word 'friend'.

No one said a word for a second. Minho was just staring at his grandmother in disbelief. "Fine, I'll leave you two alone again." Her gaze rested on us for one more second, before she went back into the kitchen.

"Sorry, I didn't expect her to come here today."

"Don't worry, she was really nice and even cooked lunch for me!" Maybe I got a little bit too excited over the food. "It was very delicious." Minho chuckled. "Oh also...I put your clothes back into the bathroom." The smile on Minho's face faded a bit and he took a step back, his arms still wrapped around my waist though.

"Are you leaving?" I nodded

"Yes I am, I think I need to talk to my parents." Minho nodded understandingly.

"Right, uhm do you want me to bring you home?"

For a second I was considering accepting his offer but he already did so much for me and I should really do this alone. Plus, there was still the possibility that one of my parents could see him, which would make this whole conversation even harder.

"No, but thank you. For everything."

I put my shoes on and was ready to leave but I turned around one last time. Minho was standing in front of me again, a soft smile placed on his face. He leaned down to me and gave me a quick peck on my cheek.

"Bye, tell me how it went with your parents." With that, he closed the door, leaving me a blushing mess. It took a few seconds until I was able to process everything.

The first steps outside the building were the hardest. I was afraid, of how my parents would react to what I had to say. But actually, the conversation with my parents couldn't go that bad. I mean my Mum kicked me out of our home, so it can't really get any worse.

The weather today was better than it has been for the last few days. The sun shone but there was still a cold wind. At least it wasn't raining.

I was still wearing Minho's jacket, to be honest, I wasn't planning to give it back to him any time soon. It was still smelling like him and gave me a feeling of comfort.

Sadly I reached my home way too fast. The urge to just turn around and go back to Minho's place was strong when the tall building appeared in my sight.

I stopped in front of the door and counted to three before unlocking it carefully. The lights seemed to be turned off everywhere. At first, I thought, no one was home but as soon as I took one step into the apartment, my mother appeared in front of me. It didn't take my Dad more than a minute until he stood next to her. Both of them were just staring at me with blank expressions.

"Can we talk?" I asked quietly. My mother scoffed.

"Oh, now you want to talk, huh? Let's go into the living room then." She said with a forced smile. I only nodded as I followed her, not wanting to say anything that would make her even more angry than she already was.

This was definitely going to be a lovely conversation.

My parents sat down on the couch. "So?" My father, who surprisingly hadn't said anything until now, asked. "What exactly do you want to talk about with us? Your boyfriend? Or is there something else we don't know about?" He lifted his eyebrow.

I took one last breath "Are you seriously asking if there is anything I haven't told you? Of course, there is. The only times you remember you have an older daughter is when one of your employees at the restaurant is sick, when my siblings need a babysitter, or when I actually show the smallest signs of having an actual own life." Tears started to blur my sight. My voice had gotten louder, with every word I had said. "Why can't you see that I'm more than my grades?"

Before one of my parents was able to say something, I continued. "And Minho, he is just a really good friend of mine and yes, maybe I like him a little bit...maybe I even like him a lot. But that is none of your business!" My Dad gasped "I am old enough to make my own decisions."

My father stood up from the couch, his face almost red out of anger. "You are talking absolute nonsense. Your mother and I just tried to help you to have a good future without any worries."

"Maybe having loving parents would have helped me more." I interrupted him.

He scoffed and turned around to my mother. "Tell her that she is being ungrateful." My gaze shifted to my Mum, who had remained silent the entire time. Tears were forming in her eyes as our eyes met. Seeing her like this made me feel bad for yelling at them

"Is that what you think? That we don't love you? I...I'm so sorry." My father's expression changed from anger to disbelief.

"So now we support this kind of behaviour? Then you can deal with her, I still have work to do." He shook his head and left the room, not saying another word.