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neo-culture-taste · 2 years

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Intrinsic: Jade - Ch 8

Genre: AU, college, frat life, drama, romance, smut, friends with benefits to lovers, secret relationship

Pairing: Taeyong x Reader (fem)

Rating: M for language, adult themes, sexual content, alcohol use

Word Count: 8800+

Summary: Being an alternative influencer on social media was a fun way to express yourself, until you could no longer relish in the joys of playing pretend, and the masks inevitably had to come off of everyone involved.

For more chapters and stories, see masterlist.

It was now or never. The point of no return.

And even if you did turn back, where would you go? You were already at the airport in a mountain town thousands of miles away from your home and university. You were already waiting at the terminal to board the plane that was going to take you to Taeyong's hometown. To Taeyong’s parents.

You were so restless you couldn’t stay still and constantly fidgeted in your seat within the plane terminal. Taeyong obviously knew you were nervous. And if he couldn’t tell by the way your legs continued to bounce up and down, then he definitely knew by the way you kept grabbing and releasing his hands over and over, playing with the rings he wore on his fingers, turning them around and around in attempts to distract yourself from the crushing weight of your anxiety.

You nearly jumped out of your seat when the lady on the intercom announced that it was time to board your flight. As you made your way through the queue and navigated to your seats, you watched Taeyong as he seemingly went through all the motions of boarding the flight with serene calm. Was that how you looked to him when you first flew to your hometown to meet your own parents? You imagined you looked exactly as nervous as Taeyong did on that flight. He looked like he was going to throw up any minute that day. And now you felt like you were going to throw up that very second.

The plane had taken off from the ground at this point, and as you gazed out the window at the clouds, you finally accepted that this was actually happening. You were hours away from meeting your boyfriend’s parents. And if they didn’t like you, what were you going to do? Would Taeyong break up with you if they didn't approve? No, he would never do that. But if there was a possibility that he would, what could you possibly do to try to prevent it?

Next to you, your boyfriend had his head on your shoulder, using it as a pillow for a light nap. How was he able to relax right now? He should have been more nervous than you at this point. Did he have a backup plan if things were to go sideways? What was his main plan anyway? All he told you was that you didn't need to do anything but be yourself, but being yourself was the last thing you wanted to do in front of well established aristocrats.

"What are you thinking about," Taeyong asked you after hearing you sigh deeply for the fourth time.

"Jumping out of this window."

He let out a sigh himself and then lifted his head from your shoulder to look you into your eyes. He grabbed your hand that was in your lap and laced your fingers together. "Try not to think about it too much," he attempted to console you, automatically knowing what was actually on your mind. "Don't worry about trying to impress them."

"How the hell am I supposed to do that? Impressing them is what's going to get them to like me, isn't it?" You looked down at your hands and then frowned. A little bit of the tattoo you had recently gotten on your wrist was peeking out from the bottom of your long sleeve. You cursed yourself for not placing it somewhere easier to hide. "I bet Reign didn't have to go out of her way to impress them," you mumbled with no actual intentions of saying it out loud.

"Don't," Taeyong warned, squeezing your hand.

"I'm sorry. I just...I don't feel like I've prepared enough. Like, what am I supposed to tell them when they ask me about my career?"

"Just tell them the truth."

"No way! You actually want me to tell them I pose half naked on the internet?"

"They're going to find out eventually, so you might as well be upfront about it."

Your eyes widened in horror. "What do you mean they're going to find out? Are they actively online?"

"Not themselves personally, but if they want to know anything about someone, then they have people to go find it."

"And you didn’t tell me this before?!"

"I guess I'm just used to it?"

"They're going to see everything! My ass is on there!"

He shushed you to keep your voice down. "I know, I know." He lifted your hands that were joined together and brought your fingers to his lips, pressing a soft kiss against them before smirking to himself. "I'm the one who took the pictures."

"Taeyong, this is serious. I don't want them to see any of that and get the wrong idea about me."

He sighed once again against your fingers. "Look, I've thought about this for a long time. I've already put you through too much. I don’t want to bring you face to face with my parents and make you any more uncomfortable by pretending to be someone you're not." He repositioned his hold so he could place a kiss on the back of your hand. "You're already amazing just the way you are."

Even though your insides melted at his words, you couldn't shake off the worry that had taken over your entire body. "If you had to think about it this long, then that means a part of you still thinks I should lie. I at least can't go in there with those pictures still up. I have to archive them."

Before he could protest, you pulled your hand away from him so you could bend over and grab your phone out of your bag. After making sure it was still in airplane mode, you connected it to the plane's wifi and then opened the Instagram app. You quickly scrolled down your feed and began a mental list of photos and videos of yourself you wanted to archive that presented way too much bare skin--which was almost 60% of your content. How else were you supposed to show off all your tattoos if not half naked?

"I'm just going to have to private the whole thing," you sighed in defeat. "Do your parents have hackers, too?" He was quiet as he actually tried to remember whether or not his family contracted assistance from hackers or not. "I'm going to delete everything."

"That's not necessary. You shouldn't have to do any of this."

"But I do. That's why--" You stopped talking when your eyes scanned across a picture of you sitting on Taeyong's lap while he was wearing his mask. In your frenzy to hide your numerous risqué photos, you had forgotten about all of your pictures with LongFlight. "Oh shit. We forgot to fake break up!"

Taeyong put his hand over your phone screen and pushed the device down into your lap. "We don't have to do that anymore. So will you please just calm down?"

You blinked forcibly as your brain caught up with his words. "Why not?"

He used his other hand to poke the space between your eyebrows and moved his finger around to stop you from creasing them together. "Because I'm going to tell them."

"But you said one thing at a time."

"And I just told you I've been thinking about this for a while. I know what I said before and it's my fault you're as scared as you are now. But you and LongFlight are both huge parts of my life that my parents are just going to have to get used to."

"But what if they make you choose between us?" Your voice came out small and wrapped in fear.

"Then of course I'll choose you," he answered without a second thought.

In so many words, Taeyong had just confessed that he would give up everything he's worked toward with LongFlight if that meant he could be with you. As much as that made your heart swell, you would never purposefully want Taeyong to stop pursuing his passion for your sake. Oh gosh, what if they made you choose between your work and being with their son. Wouldn't you also give everything up for him without having to think about it? Well, duh. You were already irrationally contemplating deleting all your profiles right there on the plane, so you were very capable of making the sacrifice. But if it really came to that decision? Would you actually be able to do it?

The plane finally made its landing at the airport in Taeyong's hometown. Prior to deboarding, Taeyong had put on a pair of sunglasses and a privacy mask in addition to his knit beanie and large winter scarf. He said he'd only put that stuff on so no one would bother him while walking through the airport, but if you saw anyone dressed like that then you'd definitely think they were a celebrity or something and you'd actually pay more attention to them. In order to not stand out like a sore thumb while walking next to Mr. Inconspicuous, you also put on a pair of sunglasses in addition to your own knit beanie to cover the majority of your hair color.

One of the Lee family’s personal drivers was awaiting your arrival at baggage claim. The older man greeted the both of you before collecting your luggage and loading them onto a cart, transporting them all the way to the car parked in the airport’s garage. Taeyong casually talked with the driver as he drove you through the city, bringing him up to speed on Taeyong's progress in school and briefly telling him how the two of you met through mutual friends, though he didn't go into too much detail. Your stomach was in knots during the entire ride to the Lee family estate, and by the time the scenery outside had changed from rows of tall buildings to rows of tall trees, you felt like throwing up again.

There were no words to describe how big his house—no, mansion was. Gargantuan didn’t even fully encompass it. Taeyong had described it to you before, but the picture you had in mind wasn't anywhere close to what you saw in person. Upon entering the large double doors, you were greeted by an older woman who scooped Taeyong into a tight hug. He introduced her to you and mentioned that she had served his family for a long time. You assumed this was the woman who acted as both his nanny and housekeeper while growing up.

After taking your coats, Taeyong instructed the driver to carry your luggage to his bedroom. You held onto him for support as you gazed fancifully at the years worth of collected lavish decor that surrounded you within the large foyer. Taeyong grew up in a house like this and he preferred to stay inside a cramped dorm room in some old frat house? Make it make sense! You were honestly so unprepared for the sudden exposure to this exceedingly wealthy environment, that the look on your face revealed to everyone just how out of place you felt.

At every new turn of a corner as Taeyong showed you the mansion’s many rooms and amenities, the more you felt like absolute garbage. Or rather absolute garbâge —spoken with a fancy accent. A normal person would be excited to visit their insanely rich boyfriend’s insanely large estate. And you were at first, but the more you gawked at the expensive paintings adorning the walls or the antique vases in perfect alignment along the spacious hallways, the more you felt as if you didn't deserve to be called Taeyong’s girlfriend. It was a different space, yet it was another place where you felt like you didn’t belong.

You never thought twice about how much money Taeyong had in his pockets. It was just an added bonus that came with the man you fell in love with. If he had turned out to be a huge jerk, then you would have cut him off immediately. No amount of money was worth putting up with and pretending you were in love with some douchebag.

To be honest, you were already privy to the fact that his family had money before you even really got to know him. However, you didn't know exactly how many zeros they had sitting behind their name. You were definitely off by at least three in your original assumption. You probably never would have known either, since Taeyong didn't act like he came from a place like this. The only time you ever really remembered he was rich was whenever you would go out and he'd never check the prices for things before he purchased them. But now you were standing in a blatant reminder that was screaming just how different your two worlds were.

When you finally made it to his bedroom, which was more like a large studio apartment without a kitchen, Taeyong pulled you into a hug and spun you in a half turn. "So what do you think?"

"I don't know what I was expecting, but everything looks like it's from a movie. With a very expensive budget."

"I can tell you're overwhelmed," he said softly before placing a kiss on your forehead. "My parents are at a fancy evening soirée or whatever where they have to show their faces and hobnob with everyone else in their tax bracket. So, you have a little more time to relax before you have to meet them." You smiled at him weakly in response before looking down forlornly at his chest. "Don't worry. I'll be right beside you."

Even though Taeyong was being calm and reassuring, he was an absolute mess of nerves on the inside. Nonetheless, he pushed all of his worries aside so he could be strong for you. He couldn’t be a walking blob of jelly when he was the only person you had to lean on in this situation. The situation that he himself put you in.

About an hour and a half later, an older male servant informed you that Taeyong’s parents had arrived. You took a deep breath to prepare yourself and didn’t release it until you were in the main family room. But then, standing right in front of them, it was incredibly hard to breathe. The pictures Taeyong had showed you of his parents didn’t compare to how good looking they were in person. They were strikingly elegant, poised, and very well put together. Compared to their formal evening wear, you felt like you were dressed like a hobo with the oversized sweater you considered to be airplane chic. You internally cursed yourself for not changing your clothes in the time you had before they came home.

His mother’s face lit up when she saw you and she greeted you cheerfully, gushing at how pretty she thought your hair was. His father stayed close to her side, smiling widely as he took in your full appearance. You stuttered a flustered ‘thank you’ before Taeyong officially introduced you to both his parents. You bashfully shook their hands and then, with the smile still on his face, his father asked you to have a seat and to get comfortable. You sat down on the couch, your back straighter than it had ever been before. Taeyong sat close to you and wrapped his arm around your waist, holding it there for the entire time you talked with his parents as a form of reassurance and support.

They asked you to tell them about yourself, the dreaded question you spent the entire plane ride obsessing over. Do you tell the truth? Do you lie? You had sort of planned to do a bit of both, but the overwhelmingly dignified aura of his parents were making you tongue tied. You felt like you were being interviewed for a job, one you certainly did not have an outstanding resumé for.

Somehow you were able to manage words, and told them about where you were from and what you were studying at the university. Later, his father made a joke about your hair, asking you if green was its natural color and then complimented you when you jested back that it was. Knowing his father was capable of making corny jokes calmed you somewhat, and made it easier to transition the conversation to talking about your interests in fashion and the beauty industry. They asked you more questions about your hobbies and what you did during your spare time, as they seemed very interested about who you were. You told them you liked to dabble a bit with photography--absolutely omitting the part about what type of photographs you habitually took.

Although nerve-racking, the conversation with his parents went more smoothly than expected. They were both very pleasant and polite and it didn’t seem like they hated you on sight. They actually were very relaxed in your presence. Taeyong’s mother had removed her heels and taken off most of her jewelry during the conversation, and his father had also taken off his shoes, removed his suit jacket, and untied his tie.

When a servant from the kitchen staff politely interrupted to announce that dinner was ready, everyone stood to make their way to the dining room. After his parents left the room, you looked at Taeyong with hopeful eyes. He smiled before placing a sweet kiss on your lips and sending whispers in your ear of a job well done. With his praise, it felt as though a huge weight had been lifted off your shoulders. You had completed the seemingly impossible task of giving his parents a good first impression of yourself. For a moment, you briefly felt like you could accomplish anything.

At the dinner table, you were considerably more relaxed than you were in the main family room. You were all smiles as you watched Taeyong and his family interact with one another. His parents updated him with information regarding some of the townsfolk: who was getting divorced, who was taking over what company, who was going bankrupt. They even gossiped a little bit about some of the people they fraternized with earlier that evening. You tried your best to follow along, but they might as well have been speaking a different language. You didn’t know any of those people they talked about and you didn’t think you’d ever meet them--or that you ever wanted to meet them.

At some point, you did begin to space out and focus on eating your food, but you were brought back into the conversation when Taeyong’s father asked you to hand him the seasoning blend in the shaker you had just used. You happily obliged, and out of habit you pulled up your sweater's sleeves so as to not get any food on them when you passed the item.

“Oh, how interesting,” his father said when you handed him the shaker. You tilted your head slightly to the side, a bit confused as to why he would say that about you doing something so normal. But then you followed his gaze to where it landed on your bare forearms openly displaying some of your tattoos.

Your eyes widened with dread when you realized what you had just done and you stiffly pulled your arms back to your side of the table. How could you have been so careless?! The whole point of wearing long sleeves was so they wouldn’t see your tattoos this early in the relationship; and you had just waved some of them right in front of their eyes. The plan was for them to get to know your personality without making any prejudgements about you based on your tattoos. You knew you were going to fuck up some kind of way. You shouldn’t have let your guard down for even a second.

You looked over to Taeyong who had stiffened, still as a statue in his seat. He wasn’t looking in your direction. Instead, he was closely watching his mother, gauging her reaction to your premature reveal. She looked away from your arms and directly at your petrified face before pressing her lips into a smile that didn’t completely reach her eyes. “Don’t be ashamed to show us, dear. We appreciate many forms of artwork and self expression.”

She hadn’t lied. Taeyong had told you before that his family did enjoy many different types of art and music. But he also told you that they were very judgemental towards the types of artistic expression they didn’t like.

Even so, immediately after his mother encouraged you to show her your arms, Taeyong’s eyes locked with his father’s as they proceeded to have a seemingly telepathic conversation.

You lifted your arms back up and warily presented them to his mother. "The designs are very unique," his father began after peeling his eyes away from his son. "And the artwork is very well done. You went to an amazing artist." He genuinely seemed very impressed by your ink and examined your tattoos as closely as he could across the large dining table.

"Um, th-thank you,” you stammered. “Ten actually designed this one," you added in an attempt to redirect the conversation. You lifted up your sleeve and bit more to show the entirety of that particular tattoo. “I had to beg him for a while before he actually drew it for me.”

"Oh, you're very good friends with Ten as well," his mother said as a statement rather than a question, as if something was finally made clear to her--as if she finally knew the reason you and her perfect son were ever in the same room together. You recalled Taeyong telling you that his parents weren’t particularly fond of his friendship with Ten for pretty much the same reasons you both thought they wouldn’t like you for. But if they were able to look past their son’s best friend having tattoos, multiple piercings, and prancing around half naked on a stage, then they would be able to do the same for his girlfriend, right?

You were certainly being overly optimistic.

You nodded and placed your hands back into your lap. "Ten is the person who introduced us to each other," you answered. You turned to Taeyong and gave him a knowing smile. "We'll, he reintroduced us, actually." Taeyong smiled back at you fondly as you shared a moment silently reminiscing about the night you first met him as LongFlight. Even though it was a bit of a drunken blur, it was still kind of romantic if you squinted.

"Reintroduced?" His mother's question had cut short your impromptu walk down memory lane.

You glanced back at Taeyong, a question now in your eyes. He understood what you were asking and he inhaled deeply as he subtly shook his head. Now was not the time to tell his parents about LongFlight.

"We knew of each other but we never hung out,” Taeyong began. “She’s childhood friends with some of my frat brothers. At the beginning of the summer, we ran into each other at one of Ten’s shows.” He paused, and reached over to grab your hand to hold it in order to calm himself down before continuing. “But we’ll tell you more about it later. It’s getting pretty late and my body is starting to feel the effects of all that traveling we did."

Something flickered across his mother’s face--an emotion you couldn’t quite catch. She could definitely sense that her son was retreating from the conversation. She could sense that he was hiding something else about you from them.

“Yes, of course,” his father started after taking a quick glance at his wife’s neutral expression. “You’ll be staying for the entire week. We have plenty of time to catch up and get to know each other. Go rest and enjoy your vacation together.”

You both excused yourselves from the table and made your way back to Taeyong's bedroom. “I don’t know if she likes me anymore,” you said once you were far enough away from the dining room and out of his parents' earshot. No matter how polite his parents may have been, you weren’t completely oblivious to how the mood had shifted when you accidentally showed them your tattoos. “But I think your dad kind of does, though, right?”

“It’s too early to tell.”

Taeyong knew how his parents operated. It was way too early to tell what his parents were thinking, but he had a pretty good idea about what was currently going through his mother’s head about you. And he knew she was going to put up a farce until she got you alone so she could really speak her mind. He wanted to avoid that at all costs by refusing to leave your side.

From your perspective, it was even harder to get a grasp on how his parents felt about you as the days passed. You spent most of your time with Taeyong as his parents were very busy with organizing and attending various business and charity events, so you didn’t have many opportunities to spend one on one time with either of them. But whenever you were all together, they still treated you the same way as they did the first day you arrived, kindly and very curiously, as if you were some kind of puzzle for them to figure out.

You were on your best behavior, of course. You didn’t have a single alcoholic drink while you were there to avoid the possibility of running your mouth about something they shouldn’t or didn’t need to know. You made sure you kept your arms and legs covered by clothing whenever you were in their presence so as to not remind them of your tattoos again. Out of sight, out of mind, right?

From where you stood, you genuinely got along pretty well with his father. He was a pretty easy going guy and tried to make you feel relaxed whenever he could. However, with Taeyong’s mother, you could tell that she was testing you. Sometimes she would make an effort to include you in conversations about topics you knew very little about, and then make little comments about how you couldn’t possibly know those things because of your different upbringing. You tried not to think too hard about it. You convinced yourself that she wasn't doing it to make you look stupid, but actually doing it to look out for her son.

Even though Taeyong had said you didn’t have to, you privated all your social media accounts anyway as a precaution. After spending time with his family, you knew they were the type to dig for information about you. Privating your accounts would give you a little bit of time before they found a way around that obstacle. You even made Taeyong archive all his pictures with you on LongFlight's Instagram before he told his parents about his secret.

He wanted you to go with him when he told them. You sitting next to him would keep him grounded, and you would be there to back him up if needed. But finding the right time to tell them was difficult. Before he knew it, it was your last night staying in his home before the two of you boarded a plane the next day to return to your university. That night, the four of you sat inside the family room as you all watched a TV show his parents were heavily invested in, but you found to be incredibly complicated and boring. You weren’t exactly sure if Taeyong was paying attention to the show or not by the way he stared blankly at the TV screen, but you quickly figured out his thoughts were completely somewhere else when he suddenly blurted out that he had a double life.

“What?” his father asked, very confused. It took a moment for his parents to register that it was their son that had just said that.

“I’m a musician,” Taeyong stated as he nervously turned to face his parents.

“Ohh,” his father’s shoulders visibly relaxed after hearing Taeyong’s confession. He thought his son was about to admit to being in a crime syndicate or something. He was immensely relieved to hear that Taeyong was just secretly making music. However, his mother continued to be on guard in her seat.

“What kind of musician?” she asked him. And you could tell she was anticipating the worst.

“Like Ten.” Taeyong said after a hesitant pause.

“Oh, son…” His father visibly frowned and he reached for the remote to pause the show on the TV. It was the first time you had seen him put on a negative expression the entire time you had stayed in their home. It almost made you sad to see him that way. The disapproval in his voice was thick, and you could practically feel the disappointment emanating from the other side of the room.

His mother? She was quiet, but her brows were knitted together in concentration.

“But I’m completely anonymous,” Taeyong continued to explain himself to his parents. “I keep my face hidden with a mask and nobody knows who I really am.”

“At least you did that right,” his father mumbled as he exasperatingly ran a hand through his hair. “How long have you been doing this? Has it been lucrative at all?”

Taeyong winced slightly. Of course his father wanted to know whether he was making a profit out of doing this or not. He just wanted to know whether or not Taeyong was wasting their family’s money on some frivolous hobby. “Almost two years, and yes.”

“Two years?” his father asked incredulously, causing his mother to scoff in disbelief.

“He’s really talented,” you chimed in to alleviate some of the tension in the room. “He’s an amazing writer and composer. And he’s already gained so much popularity that well known artists are asking him to produce songs for them.” You place your hand onto Taeyong’s shoulder, communicating to him that you were always going to be there to support him by doing so. He put his hand on top of yours as a gesture of thanks, and accepted your support by intertwining his fingers with yours. “He’s very successful.”

His mother looked at the interaction between your hands before one of her eyebrows raised and her lips pressed into a thin line.

“Really?” his father leaned forward in his seat, genuinely intrigued. He was back to his regular relaxed nature and you felt as if someone had opened a window to let out all of the hot air in the room. “How did you go about starting this? Let us hear some of your compositions.”

Taeyong proceeded to tell his father about how he got his beginnings and the processes he took to get where he was today. He was also visibly at ease now as he chatted excitingly to his father about something he was very passionate about. The two of you even went on to tell his parents the true story of how you met–leaving out very specific and graphic details of course. His mother still hadn’t said anything during the conversation. She quietly sat next to her husband and sipped on her tea the whole time. However, her facial expression had gone back to being neutral. She could see just how much her son lit up when he talked about his music. So she decided to keep whatever comments she had about it to herself.

For now.

The grandfather clock in the foyer signaled to everyone that it was now 10 pm. Taeyong’s father looked at his wristwatch and was surprised by how late it was. He and his wife had an early meeting in the morning so they needed to start preparing for bed. The four of you stood and said your goodnights to one another. But before you walked away, Taeyong’s mother called you back.

She told you how nice it was to meet you and have you stay with them for the week, and if she didn’t see you in the morning before you left for your flight, then this was her goodbye to you. Her husband followed suit and did the same, and held his hand out to you for a handshake. His mother, however, had caught you off guard. After you shook her husband’s hand, she wrapped her arms around you in a hug.

You couldn’t believe what was happening. You were pretty sure–no–almost positive that this woman did not like you. But here she was hugging you goodbye. Even though it felt extremely weird, you immediately reciprocated and hugged her back, quickly deciding not to waste this uncharacteristic gesture of affection. When she let you go, she smiled at you and told you once more that she enjoyed your company, and then she walked over to her son and kissed him on the cheek before she and her husband retired to the master bedroom.

After they left, you immediately turned to Taeyong. “What?!” you whispered to him in shock.

“I don’t know!” he whispered back equally as stupefied.

You closed the short distance between you and your boyfriend by jumping up and wrapping your arms happily around his neck. “Did we do it?! Did we actually do it?!”

“Maybe?” he answered you with a big smile.

You squealed inwardly before planting kisses all around his mouth in your excitement.

“Hold on, hold on,” he said to stop the onslaught of your lips on his face. “We don’t know for sure yet.” If there was one thing he knew about his mother, it was that she was very skilled at maintaining a poker face.

“What do you mean? She hugged me. I don’t think she’d do that if she didn’t like me.”

You had a point. The only people Taeyong had seen his mother hug besides him and his father were other members of his family and a few of her close friends. Hugging anyone else was extremely out of character. So what did his mother hugging you actually mean?

“Let’s go celebrate,” you said, breaking him out of his thoughts. You grabbed his hand and then skipped through the hallways as you guided him to his own bedroom.

Perhaps he was overthinking it and his mother hugging you did actually mean that she liked you. Or maybe, she had noticed just how happy you made her son and accepted you regardless of how she felt about you. Well, that thought made him feel good. It made him feel really good. And the look on your face, the smile you had plastered on from ear to ear as you clumsily wriggled out of your shirt and pants, it made him feel extremely good.

Did he actually do it? With all of the hiding and all of the sneaking around, and all of the bullshit he had to make you do just so his parents wouldn’t get wind of you before you had a chance to meet them? Did it all actually pay off?

The two of you passionately made love in his bedroom that night, drunk and happy on the idea of the two of you finally being able to love each other openly and freely. You went to sleep naked and wrapped in each other’s arms, believing that you would now be able to do that every night without ever having to worry about living up to anyone’s standards except your own.

When the morning came, you were woken up by the movement of your boyfriend as he unraveled himself from you and made his way out of the bed. He noticed he had woken you up and apologized before kissing you good morning. He started to get dressed by putting on a t-shirt and a pair of shorts he picked up off the floor, prompting you to ask him where he was going. He said he wanted to catch his parents before they left for their meeting so he could tell them goodbye one more time.

Taeyong made his way to his parents’ bedroom, but they weren’t in there. He thought maybe he had missed them and decided to check the garage to see if one of their cars were gone. But on his way to look, he ran into the housekeeper who told him that his parents had just finished having breakfast in the kitchen and were about to leave.

“Hey, mom, dad,” he addressed them upon entering the kitchen.

“Hey, son,” his father returned his greeting with a smile.

“What’s wrong, dear,” his mother asked him, sensing her son had something he wanted to tell them. Mother’s intuition.

“Nothing’s wrong. I just wanted to say goodbye again and I wanted to thank you. I really appreciate you accepting my music career and my relationship with Jade.”

His mother abruptly hiccuped. The corners of her lips twitched into a smile as she tried to hold in her sudden laughter, but she ultimately couldn’t and had to bring her hand up to her face to conceal her snickering. Next to her, his father let out a loud sigh and shook his head at his wife.

Taeyong furrowed his brows in confusion at their contradicting reactions. “What’s so funny?”

She removed her hand from her mouth and smiled widely at her son’s perplexed face. “How long are you going to keep doing this act?”

Your boyfriend’s confusion further continued. “What act?”

His mother rolled her eyes. “Taeyong, dear. You can’t fool us. It’s too obvious what you’re doing.”

“I’m not doing anything.”

“Oh, please," she waved her hand dismissively. "We knew you were up to something long before you got here when you stressed to us over the phone how different your new girlfriend was. And after seeing her for ourselves, well, your father and I knew immediately why you had brought her here. So we decided that we wouldn’t ruin the poor girl’s stay by giving you the reaction you wanted. So we did the opposite.”

The reason he brought you? The reaction he wanted? But they did give him the reaction he was hoping for. He had brought you there for them to get to know you and accept you. So what was his mother even saying? “What are you talking about?”

She rolled her eyes dramatically once more. “Okay fine, I’ll say it out loud if that's what you really want me to do. With your double life aside, you have successfully pissed us off by bringing a girl like her here. Congratulations! You’ve pranked us!”

Taeyong was too stunned to speak. He stood there wide eyed in shock as he looked back and forth between his mother and father. He had been completely fooled. Here he thought his parents had finally accepted him for being different, that they had finally accepted him wanting to lead a different life than what they had originally planned for him. That they had finally accepted the fact that he could and would love whoever he wanted.

“So, when you’re done playing around with Ten’s little groupie,” his mother continued. “Make sure that she isn’t too attached to you and doesn’t try to run off with any more of our money.”

Taeyong became furious. His mother had no right to talk about you like that. She barely knew you and she was only making assumptions about you based on how you looked and how he met you. Exactly like he knew she would. He couldn’t believe he let himself be tricked so easily. He couldn’t believe he didn’t notice what was going on before he let them trick you.

“She’s not like that,” Taeyong rebutted with a clear edge to his voice. "And she’s not going anywhere.”

His mother took in the way her son’s posture had become more rigid, more defiant. And she couldn’t deny the intense emotions she saw burning in his eyes. “You’re serious,” she spat in disbelief. Now her posture had changed. Her weight had shifted on her feet as her stance changed into one of threatening authority.

“Yes. We’re in love.”

He could see the veins in his mother’s temple twitch as she tightly clenched her jaw. Her eyes bored into him, unblinking as she mentally filtered through all the possible reasons her son could honestly want to be with someone like you, until she finally settled on the reason she feared the most. “Is she pregnant?” she hissed through her teeth.

“Not yet,” Taeyong challenged.

Before his wife could erupt with rage, his father stepped in between them. “Take a deep breath, honey. He’s just being rebellious right now. You becoming furious is what he wants. He’s just trying to get under your skin.”

“No!” Taeyong exploded. “I’m not playing any games right now. I’m going to spend the rest of my life with her.”

His mother angrily pushed past her husband and stomped towards her son. Taeyong flinched as she got close to him and jutted her index finger into his chest as she railed into him. “How dare you insinuate insulting our family by proposing to that trashy woman. Do you actually think that we didn’t do our homework? After you told us about your secret music career, we easily found out everything we needed to know about who she really is and about the indecent behavior she displays on the internet for the entire world to see. The first results that show up when you search LongFlight are all from gossip rags talking about your dating scandal. You were smart enough to keep your identity hidden when it came to your undignified rap music, but you weren’t smart enough to realize you were being seduced by someone who only wanted to take advantage of your name. You may have been successful in hiding her from us and hiding yourself from the paparazzi right now, but one day you’re going to get caught and the damage it will do to this family will be irreversible.”

Taeyong was speechless again, but not because he couldn’t find the words. He was angry. He was frustrated. He was sad. He knew his parents would more than likely disapprove of your relationship with him, but he didn’t think his mother would reject you so vehemently. It hurt. It hurt him so much because he loved you and he loved his family. All he wanted was for the both of you to get along.

His mother stepped away from him and pinched the bridge of her nose. “Give up this game already. You’ve lost your mind if you think for a second that you’ll be able to pull this off. Don’t drag this out too long and get rid of that girl quickly if you know what’s best for her.”

Taeyong forced himself to look up at the ceiling as he desperately held back the tears behind his eyes. He knew what she meant by what was best for you. He knew exactly what she meant and he wanted to believe he could prevent the worse from happening. But in that moment he felt helpless–powerless against his mother’s authority.

“I have a headache,” she told her husband as she released her nose. “Talk some sense into your son, but make it quick. The meeting starts within the hour. I’ll be waiting in the car.”

After his mother exited the kitchen, his father walked up to him and placed a comforting hand on Taeyong's shoulder. “I know that was a lot to hear, but she’s right, son. Take care of this so neither one of us has to step in. You know what your mother is capable of.”

His father had now exited as well, leaving Taeyong alone in the kitchen to process. He had begun to shake, attempting to hold in everything he was feeling. He tried to calm himself down with rapid deep breaths but it wasn’t working. He needed to see you. Seeing you and hugging you–it was the only thing he could think of that could calm him down. But he couldn't see you like this. He wouldn’t be able to hold face. You would know something was wrong right away.

But you didn’t even have to see him to know something was wrong. You would know before he rounded the corner to exit the kitchen. You would know before his eyes locked onto your tear streaked face as you leaned against the hallway wall with your hand covering your mouth to hide your violent sobs.

After Taeyong had left you in bed, you tried your best to fall back asleep but you couldn’t. For some reason you felt very restless, and you found yourself thinking about too many things at one time. You were still just so giddy from last night’s events, that you couldn’t stop your mind from making up scenarios where you and your boyfriend were happy and married and all kinds of other cheesy romantic stuff.

Now that you were fully awake, you realized that you were hungry, and then after that you came up with the idea to make breakfast for you and Taeyong before you had to leave to go to the airport. So you got up, threw on your robe, and started on your way to the kitchen. But sadly, as you made your way to the hall, you were unfortunately able to make out the voices of Taeyong and his mother in a heated argument, stopping you dead in your tracks as you forced yourself to listen to her accuse you of all the horrible things she thought you were doing with her son.

Taeyong's chest tightened in anguish at the sight of you in the hallway and he immediately started to rush towards you, but you lifted away from the wall and bolted back to his bedroom. He wordlessly chased you back into his room, physically unable to call your name due to the enormous lump in his throat. Once inside, you fell to your knees and let out the most gut wrenching sob he had ever heard you produce.

“I’m so sorry…” he managed to croak out, still continuing to fight back the tears he refused to let fall. He had to be strong. He needed to be strong for you.

“Stop saying that!” you screamed. “You knew I wasn’t good enough for you from the beginning!”

“That's not true…” he whimpered, getting down on his own knees to be level with you.

“Yes it fucking is!” you yelled while turning around to face him. “The sneaking around, the lies, the fact that you care so much about how you'll look being seen with me! You started off playing fucking games with my head and I’m still being played by you right now!”

Taeyong managed to swallow the lump in his throat before speaking again. “No baby, that's not true. What happened between us…what I did in the beginning was before–”

“Before what? Before you decided to trick me into this relationship just so you could piss off your parents? I heard what she said! You were never serious about us to begin with!”

“That's not true and you know it!”

“Then what is true, Taeyong? Is any of this true? Was any of this ever true?!”

“Of course it is! Don’t ever think that my feelings for you aren’t real! I love you so much it hurts!” He crawled closer to you on the floor. “I’m willing to go against my family for you. I know we can handle whatever they say or do to try to break us apart.” He reached out his hand to grab yours, but you recoiled away from him.

“But what if I can’t handle it? You keep saying ‘we’, but did you ever think about what this was going to do to me?”

“Yes! I think about that constantly! That’s why I want to prove to them that you’re--”

“If you’re willing to go against them, then why do you have to prove anything? If you still have to prove I’m worthy, then that’s not going against them at all! You’re too scared to do it! What do you think is going to happen to us that you’re so afraid of? What aren’t you telling me?!”

“They will do anything to get rid of you! Anythi--fuck!” He started to get choked up again and began to steady his breathing. “I’m afraid of every possible thing they could do to make me lose you. I know what they’re capable of and I'm telling you that it will be nothing compared to what you heard today. I know, okay! And I know I keep fucking up because I don’t entirely know what I’m doing and I keep putting you through so much shit, but you have to trust me! I don’t know exactly how I’m going to solve this, but I just know that I have to do something! I don’t want to lose you! I can’t!”

Taeyong brokedown as his entire body crumpled in on itself. He was completely bent over on the floor, crying into his hands as he struggled to keep himself from shaking from the painful sobs that felt like they were going to rip him apart.

“That’s not fair,” you said with a fresh batch of tears running down your face. The anguish on his face, the horrible aching you felt inside your chest. It wasn’t fair for the two of you to have to go through any of this. And you didn’t know how much longer you would be able to keep going through this pain. “I want to believe you, but it can't…These empty promises…I can’t take it anymore…”

He snapped his head up from his hands and looked at you mortified. “No, baby, I know!” He reached out and grabbed your wrists and you allowed him to pull you closer to him. “I’m not trying to force you to believe anything. I just…” His sentence trailed off as he looked into your red puffy eyes. The sorrow he saw in them–it was all his fault. He did this to you, he was doing this to you. He knew what he had to do to stop it from happening. He couldn’t make you continue with this pain. “I just…” he repeated, and looked down at the floor, swallowing the second freshly formed lump in his throat as he fought back his entire being from telling himself not to say the words that were about to come out of his mouth. “If you don’t want to--”

“I don’t think…” you started, cutting him off. “Staying in this…isn’t going to work out the way we want it to…”

Taeyong’s hands gripped your wrists tightly and his forehead hit your chest as he failed miserably to fight back the sob that choked out of his throat. He didn’t want to end it, but he knew that was the only thing that would make things right.

None of it was fair. It wasn’t fair that he fell for you the very next day after the night in the bathroom. It wasn’t fair how quickly he realized that you were the missing piece to completing him. It wasn’t fair how he had to try so hard to change something he couldn't control just so he could stay with you.

It wasn’t fair the way your insides twisted into agonizing knots when you watched his heart crack into pieces before your eyes. It wasn't fair the way you wanted to hold him in your arms and tell him that everything was going to be okay when you knew for a fact it would only get worse. It wasn't fair that you still didn't want to let him go when you knew your relationship was doomed from the start. It wasn’t fair that you couldn’t picture yourself living without being with Taeyong.

It wasn't fair that the two of you were the unfortunate victims of falling in love with someone they weren't supposed to have.

“But…” you started again, placing your hands on his head in a tender embrace. “We can keep trying.”

Taeyong audibly whined, letting go of your wrists to wrap his arms around your torso to hold you close as he let out sobs of relief into your chest.

You petted your hands against his hair in gentle strokes, reassuring him that you didn’t want to go anywhere–that you didn’t want to leave him if there was something, anything, that the two of you could do to prevent the inevitable.

😢 - D

For more chapters and stories, see masterlist.

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