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While Jeongguk had what Taehyung would call a “near-nervous-breakdown” preparing himself to meet Jimin’s father, Jimin feels nothing but excitement at the prospect of finally being able to have lunch with Jeongguk’s mom. The couple are spending their break time over at their hometown in Busan, they decided to sleep over at Jimin’s place for the first four days before spending the rest of the week staying at Jeonggguk’s place, and now while all the Jeon boys are fishing at the Amnam Park for dinner, Mrs. Jeon had asked Jimin to drive her to a local grocery store to buy some ingredients that she needed for tonight’s feast.
To be quite honest, the only thing Jimin is anxious about is having Jeongguk’s mom discovering that he cannot cook anything harder than boiling water to save his own life, he’s a perfectionist, and he does not only want to leave a good impression on his boyfriend’s family, he wants to leave a great one. Thankfully though, he’s spent his childhood to teenager years as his own mom’s go-to Errand Boy, and assisting Mrs. Jeon shopping might be one of the easiest things he ever has to do in his entire life, which is why Jimin should’ve known better that this day has been going way too smoothly with Mrs. Jeon than what he had predicted.
“Pull over in front that little shop, Jiminie” Mrs. Jeon tells him with a smile while pointing at a small house that’s separated from the rest of the buildings in the block, there are small bushes of roses and lavenders surrounding the architecture, standing out in it small stature in between the three stories industrial ones. They’re going to a small restaurant or cafe it seems.
Jimin purses his lips and glances at her hesitantly, “Are you sure, Aunty?”
Mrs. Jeon chuckles and pats his shoulder comfortingly, “Don’t worry, dear. The owner is my high school best friend and the rest of the employees knew Jeongguk since he was a baby, they won’t bother you, let’s have some afternoon tea before my boys come back, shall we?” she asks with a teasing glint and if Jimin was somebody else, he would’ve shit his pants. But he’s not, he’s Park Jimin and he’s prepared for anything.
“Alright, Aunty” Jimin grins as he pulls over, “You can get out now, I’ll park the car”
“Okay,” Mrs. Jeon nods, “You should park near the back entrance, dear, that way no one outside will recognize you”
Jimin hums as he waits for her to get out, he then follows her instruction as he parks on the empty lot near the back door. He walks towards the rear entrance of the restaurant and opens the little white door, the bell rings alerting the people inside that there’s a new customer and before Jimin can take a good look at his surroundings the smell of freshly baked pastries hits his nose, his stomach grumbles a little, reminding him that he only had a granola bar for lunch.
“Oh my god, Sunjung-ah! He looks even prettier than the pictures” A woman around Mrs. Jeon’s height with a plump built gushes at her best friend, “Come on in, young man” She signals Jimin to approach her, “Ah, look at you! I cannot believe you and our Jeonggukie are world stars right now” She laughs proudly, hugging Jimin after he bows to her as if he’s her best friend’s son.
“It’s so nice to meet you, Aunty” Jimin replies politely, “Your coffee shop is very beautiful”
“Aish! It’s nothing child, my daughter happens to be an interior designer, this is all her work” The woman says nonchalantly, “Come, you two” She tells them as she walks to the corner table that’s almost covered by the bookshelves on the sides, “I hope you like this seating” she says with a smile, she hands both Jimin and Mrs. Jeon menus before bidding goodbye.
“Thank you, Soominnie” Mrs. Jeon returns her friend’s smile. She puts down the menu without even looking at it first, Jimin knows instantly that she’s spent more of her time in here that she probably knows every single item they’re selling eyes closed.
“Do you have any recommendations, Aunty?” he asks, “Seems like you know the menu by heart”
“You sure are perceptive, aren’t you?” Mrs. Jeon muses, “Soomin makes the best bulgogi sandwiches, and you should try her lemon tart too, but we should just order one each, we don’t want to have full stomachs before dinner”
Jimin hums, “Alright, I’ll order those, you want to have them with chamomile tea right?”
“Oh, you know me so well, son” Mrs. Jeon laughs and Jimin smiles sheepishly as he makes his way towards the boy who’s standing beside the cashier. He makes his orders and tips the cashier generously, hoping that the boy would have the decency to keep his whereabouts a secret for at least a week. Jimin returns to their table, he takes a long look at his surroundings, the coffee shop is painted with old white paint, it’s not the usual chic and contemporary designs he used to see back in Seoul, everything about this place feels like it comes from European vintage paintings, Soomin-ssi must’ve traveled around Europe a lot.
“This cafe is very pretty,” Jimin comments thoughtfully.
“I know” Mrs. Jeon beams proudly, “Soomin’s husband was working in Italy for a while and she built this shop almost exactly like the old place she used to spend her free time on decades ago”
“And those paintings, they’re yours, aren’t they?” Jimin asks, his eyes trailing on the various paintings plastered on the walls.
“How do you know?” Mrs. Jeon looks startled.
“Jeongguk told me you sell your paintings to coffee shops and boutiques, and every time you sent him your work he always forwarded it to me,” Jimin says, “They’re so beautiful, Aunty, no wonder Jeongguk is great at painting too”
“That kid,” Mrs. Jeon starts, her voice sounds like she’s in disbelief, “Sometimes I wonder if he’s even my own, he feels like he’s too perfect to be true, you know? I must’ve saved a country in my previous life, the world gives me the best family I could ever ask for” she smiles longingly, and then her gaze falls on Jimin, “Funny how Jeongguk said the same thing to me when he told us that you two are finally dating,” Mrs. Jeon says, her eyes glinting with amusement.
Jimin blushes, he knows that Jeongguk is the closest to his mother, but sometimes he forgets that his boyfriend tells his mother everything. “He’s just being Jeongguk, Aunty” he mumbles, not really knowing how to reply.
“Ah, don’t give yourself such little credit, Jiminie, my Jungkookie needs time to open to people, let alone letting himself fall for one, so you must be remarkable yourself that my son spent a whole good year whining to my phone about how scared he was to ask you out on a date”
If it’s physically possible, Jimin blushes even deeper.
“I told him to be patient” Mrs. Jeon continues, “I think he reached a moment where he wanted to give up, but I told him if you feel that strongly for someone you should never give up on them”
Mrs. Jeon speaks with such a light-hearted tone, her eyes keep staring at Jimin as if she knows something that he doesn’t and Jimin wants to kick himself for thinking that this would be an easy ride, one can never predict things when meeting their partner’s parents it seems. “You really said all that to him?” Jimin inquires curiously, “You sounded like you had so much faith in us even before we were together, Aunty”
“Well, if it helps, I knew that you had feelings for my son long before he told me that he liked you”
If the waitress had served the tea a minute faster Jimin would’ve sputtered it all on the table.
“What?” Jimin gapes, his eyes wide in shock as he stares back and forth at Mrs. Jeon and the waitress who’s putting their orders one by one. He waits until she’s out of earshot before he leans closer to Mrs. Jeon and whispers, “You knew?”
Mrs. Jeon shakes her head with a knowing smile, “Of course, I knew”
“B-but, how?” Jimin sputters, “I thought I was careful! I even told everyone that I missed Jihyun so much and that I was trying to replace him with Jeongguk, which mind if I tell you, was the biggest and the most cringe-worthy lie I ever told, it still gives me shudders whenever it crosses my mind”
“I see how you treat him, I see how you look at him, I know you’ve liked him since you were seventeen, son”
Jimin feels like he’s ready for the earth to open up and swallow him whole, this is so embarrassing, Oh my God… Jimin thinks in horror, What if Mrs. Jeon thinks badly of me because she knows I’ve had a crush on her son for so long?
As if she suddenly has a mind-reading power, Mrs. Jeon adds, “Now, I’d blame it on my son’s thick skull for not noticing you for so long, but I think it might have been in his genetics”
Jimin blinks, “His what?”
Mrs. Jeon pursed her lips, trying to suppress a smile, she takes a long sip of tea like she’s trying to make Jimin crazy by stalling her answers, she puts down her tea and rests back on her chair, her arms crossed. “Jimin,” She starts with her eyebrow raised, “You don’t really think that you’re the first person who had spent years pining over a handsome Jeon kid until they had matured enough to see you more than just their favorite sunbae, do you?” Mrs. Jeon then gives him a teasing grin, “How do you think I could’ve known about your crush on my son way before any of you had said anything to me, huh?
Jimin can only stare at her dumbly, “You-’”
“Oh, yeah” Mrs. Jeon chuckles with a nod, she’s smiling from ear to ear now, she sighs contently in her seat as if she’s reeling from the memories in her younger days, “My husband was just as worse as Jeongguk, well, I was partially at fault too I guess.” She takes another sip from her tea, the smell of the Lemon Tart hits Jimin’s nose and travels right away into his stomach, but he’s too intrigued (and partially mortified) to take a bite. “I found Junseo cute and decided to tease and flirt with him, because he was shy, and it was so endearing to see his reactions, especially when I complimented his good looks, he would blush and strutter while trying to find ways to dodge the conversations to something else. But as time goes, what was initially just me teasing a junior became an actual infatuation and it was too late for me to stop what I was doing because already fell for him”
Oh no, Jimin thinks, this feels way too similar for it to be just another person’s story. “Did you, urm,” Jimin clears his throat nervously, “Did you pull back when he kept rejecting you?”
Mrs. Jeon nods, “Of course I did, I was hurt, but I also was too proud to admit it, so I pretended that it didn’t bother me in the slightest even though I spent three days crying to sleep, because at this point, despite what I felt romantically for Junseo, we also had built a strong friendship beyond all of that, you know? And I was so scared to think that I had lost him as a friend too, so to make things not awkward, I thought it would be a great idea for me to see other guys immediately so that Junseo would think that I’ve moved on and things would stop being awkward between us”
“Oh” Jimin says, “How did Mr. Jeon react to that?”
Mrs. Jeon straightens in her seat, she takes another sip of tea before beaming proudly, “Oh it was comical, turns out all it took was just a rumor of me dating some guy from the Psychology Department and that poor boy was already crying to my dorm room with flowers and chocolate with letters of confessions while blabbering about how stupid he was for not realizing what he felt for me and he was quite literally on his knees begging me to be his girlfriend” Mrs. Jeon then sighs dreamily, “I wished we already had smartphones back then, my friends would definitely record it and spread it around the campus”
Jimin cannot help but grin, Mrs. Jeon is so petty, he truly feels he can get along with her just fine, she’s like the cool aunt Jimin never had. The image of the tall and burly Mr. Jeon crying on his knees like a child while begging for Mrs. Jeon to date him flashes through Jimin’s mind makes him choke on the tea he’s drinking.
Mrs. Jeon chuckles and hands him the napkin, “So what set my Jeonggukie off?”
“Sorry?”
“You know, what made Jeongguk pulled a Jeon by going overboard with his declaration of love to you when he realized that he might be too late to do it?”
“Oh,” Jimin blushed, the edges of his mouth feel like they’re smiling at their own will, while Mrs. Jeon’s story was simply cute Jimin feels like his was a bit too embarrassing to tell.
“Aw, come on now, Jiminie” Mrs. Jeon says, “It’s only fair if you tell me your story in return”
“It’s um” Jimin begins nervously, “it’s Taehyung” he says in a quiet voice.
Suddenly Mrs. Jeon stops smiling and Jimin winces.
“Taehyung?” The older woman asks, her face contorted to a chagrin, “You almost dated my son’s best friend?!” she whispers-asks him a bit harshly.
“What? N-no!” Jimin quickly says, “And Taehyung’s my best friend too, Aunty” he adds, feeling like somehow it’s important for her to know that he would never put two friends against each other, “We never- I swear to you- see other in any way other than platonic.” Jimin swears, and it seems like it’s enough to convince her because the woman relaxes a little in her seat. So Jimin continues, “Taehyung had prepared this romantic getaway for his then girlfriend on Valentine’s day, he reserved a whole cinema just for them and even rented a restaurant for their date, but she dumped him three days before and he couldn’t refund those reservations so Taehyung begged me to spend the day with him instead. We tried asking the other members to go but they already had plans on their own”
“Oh,” Mrs. Jeon says in relief, “You almost had me there”
Jimin chuckles, “It’s alright, Aunty. Anyways, Taehyung, God bless him, thought that it would be a great and fun idea to mess with Jeongguk and pretended to sent the wrong message to him and then told Jeongguk that the text was intended to me”
“Oh?" She raised her eyebrows, "What was written on the text?”
Jimin grins mischievously, “Taehyung wrote that he was glad that I agreed to go out with him and that he couldn’t wait to go on future ‘dates’ with me”
Mrs. Jeon gasps, her eyes are as wide as saucers, “He didn’t”
“Oh, he did,” Jimin grins.
“Oh my god,” Mrs. Jeon says, “What happened after that?”
Jimin giggles, “It was cinematic, Aunty.” He can remember every single second of that day like it was just tomorrow, “Taehyung told me to hide in the bathroom and Jeongguk immediately went to our dorm from the company and bolted straight to Taehyung’s room and hit him with a pillow over and over, I have never seen him that angry in my entire life, he was screaming ‘How could you?! I told you I’ve liked Jimin for months! I poured my feelings about him to you and you threw that in my face by going out with him?!”
Mrs. Jeon laughs, “Oh, I can imagine that”
“We were so lucky Namjoonie-hyung was home that day, he went sprinting to the room to hold Jeongguk back just as he was about to lunge at Taehyung”
“Oh my god,” Mrs. Jeon says again, this time in amazement, “That friend of yours is really something, Jiminie”
“I know” Jimin smiles fondly at the memory, “Taehyung was as calm as a feather, he was all like-” Jimin lowers his voice to mimic his best friend exaggeratingly, “ ‘I was helping you, dude’ to which Jeongguk replied with a ‘what the hell are you talking about ?!' and that was when I immediately ran out of the bathroom and confronted him, I was so surprised to know that he liked me just as much as I liked him that I threw Jeongguk back the pillow he used to hit Taehyung while accusing him about how dare he made me think that my feelings were unrequited”
“Wow, that sounds like something that would come out from a romantic-comedy movie” Mrs. Jeon laughs.
“It does” Jimin joins her, “But he was so sweet after that, Aunty, he apologized for pushing me away and took me out on a date the next way, and well,” Jimin concludes shily, “We’ve been dating ever since”
“I know he’ll come around,” Mrs. Jeon says knowingly (and a little bit too proudly), “All the Jeon men are the same, you know, it always takes them a lot longer to realize how they feel, but once they do, they’ll fall harder for you than anyone else ever could” She smiles at him, leaning forward to give Jimin’s hand a gentle squeeze, “Welcome to the family, Jimin”
Jimin heart does a leap, he squeezes her hand back, “Thank you, Aunty”
Mrs. Jeon holds her gaze at him for another moment before she retrieves back, she clears her throat and blinks numerous times as if she’s trying to hold back her tears, and Jimin feels awkward, not really knowing how to handle an emotional Mrs. Jeon, he met her several times before this of course, but he never actually met her.
“Ah,” Mrs. Jeon says, “Eat that food of yours, Jimin-ah, don’t mind this Aunty, she’s just too happy and relieved that her baby son finally got the boy of his dreams” Mrs. Jeon pulls out a handkerchief from her purse and sheds the falling happy tears from her eyes, “I really must have saved a country in my previous life,” she adds dramatically, and Jimin chuckles, “I am the luckiest woman in the world right now, I really am”
“You deserve nothing less, Aunty” Jimin replies smoothly before taking a bite on the lemon tart they ordered, he hums as the sweet and tangy taste fills his mouth, seems like this day goes as perfect as he’d hope it would.