Egocentric [Book I]

Coward

“Goodnight Mr. and Mrs. Yeo.” Xiumin bowed down. “Thank you for the meal. It was lovely.”

“Oh, aren’t you sweet.” Minah’s mother smiled as she couldn’t hide the slight blush from her cheeks.

“Alright, let’s cut the flattery.” Minah rolled her eyes and tugged Xiumin by the sleeve of his uniform. “Come on, I’ll accompany you to the car.”

“Drive safe.” Appa reminded as they let his daughter and Xiumin go out.

The cold night wind blew on both of them gently as Minah shut the door, releasing Xiumin’s sleeve immediately after. She huffed and gave him a skeptical look until they reached his vehicle parked outside their house.

“I can’t believe they like you that much.” Minah whined, leaning on the black car as she glanced at her home.

Dinner went by smoothly, unlike the last time when everyone was awkward with Xiumin and vise versa. Minah’s parents asked him a lot of things; where his own parents were, did he have any siblings and stuff that Minah had been curious about for the past weeks.

She learned that he had an older sister who lived in Gyeonggi-do with his parents, managing an engineering business he refused to talk about. Maybe it was just Minah, but every time someone asked about his family, he tried hard to change the subject.

She didn’t dare ask about it, because there’s probably something meaningful underneath his smiles when he answered their questions.

“You have a wonderful family.” Xiumin smiled slightly and just stood there with her, hinting that he would like to talk a little bit before leaving.

“Why?” Minah asked softly. “Don’t you?”

“I have a family.” His smile faltered a little, but he brought it back just to reassure Minah. “Thanks for not being so mean to me at the table.”

“I can’t do that in front of my parents.” Minah shook her head, although she appreciated his words inside. “Besides, I’m not mean to you on purpose. You started it.”

“Come on, are we going to go through this again?” Xiumin raised an eyebrow at her, making her crack a smile. They seemed to be getting along little by little every day – or just getting used to each other’s dreadful attitudes – but strangely, they were both okay with that.

They were silent for a while with blank expressions, just looking at the Yeo house. Minah glanced up at Xiumin and saw how creased his forehead was, probably thinking about his own home in Gyeonggi-do. She wondered how it was like to live in it, or if he was too unhappy that he decided to move out.

“I can’t remember the last time you looked that serious.” Minah scoffed, elbowing Xiumin at the side. He gazed at her, confused.

“What?”

“You’re either smug or just plain smiling now.” Minah explained. “That’s a good thing, I guess.”

“Well, you aren’t being too annoying these days.” Xiumin replied with a big grin. “We’re even.”

It was silent again for a moment.

“Hey Xiumin...” Minah started nervously. “You know you can always come here, right?”

“What?” Xiumin repeated.

“I mean, my Umma and Appa will always welcome you in with us.” Minah shrugged. “You live in an apartment by yourself. I could never imagine living without someone saying goodnight before I sleep or good morning to me the moment I wake up, even if it’s my irritating little brother.”