The Real Me

It went well

After a few hours of work lunch time came over. Now here's the thing, I behaved really badly in front of his parents the first time we met so this is going to be awkward.

"Don't be formal, we're neighbours after all." Mrs Park said in the sweetest voice.

"Of course." I said with a smile. Well this didn't go as expected, not complaining though.

The meal looked delicious and we started eating. "How did you know I like Tteok-bokki?" (pronounced as tok-boki, also known as stir fried rice cakes, is a Korean dish, since Chase's family is half Korean)

"Your mom told me about it. But as less spicy as possible."

"Thank you so much."

"No, thank you for helping Chase with school work. He said you gave him your notes since he was falling behind and asked the teacher to partner you with him in this project. You really are an angel as he said." I just did that cause of my parents but okay.

"Angel is an exaggeration. But you're welcome."

"I heard you sing pretty well, how about a little concert?" Mr Park said.

"Only if your son duets with his guitar." I wanted to say no but I couldn't after seeing that guitar.

"I'm in!" Chase said in enthusiasm.

We started singing, it was a beautiful moment. We didn't plan it but it went smooth. I could definitely see how happy Chase was to play the guitar. Even before I knew it, I started smiling as well. And just like that our lunch went pretty smooth without any awkward small talk and we ended our concert.

We went outside for a walk with Chase's dog. We finished half of the project, only a few things were left which we decided to complete separately.

"It's quite cold. It was a good idea to bring our hoodies." I said as we were walking in the park.

"Yup, anyways, looks like you had fun in the duet."

"Yeah, I love acoustic guitars as you can already tell, plus our parts synced well. I never thought we could sound that good together."

"I never thought you could sing! That was a surprise."

"I used to sing Emma to sleep and started getting better at it."

"I see, we kinda had the same experiences, from our parents to our talents."

"Yeah, it's glad to see someone who understands my problems and is fighting just like me."

"Let's fight together and win!"

"I don't have any problems with that!"

"Are you okay though? With Ben and stuff?"

"Yeah, it feels like I know him but then I realized that he's a mystery to me. I can't even tell if he is lying or not anymore."

"Let's take it slow, it seems like he had a lot in his hands as a kid."

"How do you know that-"

"My dad told me about him, he had a rough childhood apparently and even PTSD."

"I know that much, but I wanna hear the rest of the story from him."

"I understand, but let's not ruin the mood. You finally smiled after last night."

"....."

"You seemed really uncomfortable when I kissed you, I'm sorry, you just looked so beautiful in that dress with the moonlight, I just couldn't hold back."

"I don't know what to say to that-"

"It's alright, I'm sorry I was just an asshole without taking your consent."

"..."

"Let me do something for you as an apology."

"You know what? You can help me with something else instead." I had the biggest smirk on my face.