“So, what are we watching?” Chen looks up at me as I come to join him on the couch.
“It’s called Minari.” I reply. Today was my turn to pick a movie.
“Minari, that’s…”
“It’s Korean. Minari itself is a type of water celery and the movie is named after it.”
“Oh.”
“A friend recommended it to me.”
“Oh, is it a romance?”
“Nope. It’s a family movie.” I reply, selecting it in the menu.
“What, family movie-“
I click play, sit back, and lean next to Chen, wrapping an arm around him.
“Just sit back and enjoy.”
The movie is about a Korean family moving to the Midwest in search of the American dream. We watch as the family struggles through lack of water for their crops, their son’s heart issues, the grandmother’s stroke, and even a fire. The movie captures the beauty of life and family. After watching it, I switch the TV off and turn to Chen.
“How was that?” I ask him, smiling. His head is bowed, it’s difficult to make out his expression.
“Chen-“
“Beautiful. It was beautiful. But Ram…I know why you had me watch that.” His voice is quiet.
I blink.
“What do you mean?”
He looks up slowly, his expression conflicted. “Ram, do you really think that by forcing me to watch a family movie about Asians it’ll make me reconnect with my family?”
“What are you talking about?”
He sighs. “Ram, don’t give me that. Please.”
“It’s just a movie about people searching for the American dream. Seriously. Besides they’re Koreans, you’re Chinese right?”
“Ram-“
“What?”
“This is just like the chips” he mutters quietly.
“What?”
“I said you’re a controlling, manipulative jerk, just like you were with the chips!” He grits out.
“What? I’m a jerk? Who won’t even let me meet their family?!”
“You-Just because something doesn’t go your way you have to manipulate everything around you so that it does!”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
“I’m not-” Chen abruptly stands and storms to his room.
“And you have a habit of running away whenever you’re uncomfortable with the situation!” I call to his back.
Several moments later I groan. I stand up and glance towards Chen’s room. The door is firmly shut. I glance down at the time, 12am. Forget it, I turn and head into my room, may as well go to bed.
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“Chen?” No response, as expected. I try again.
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“I’m sorry. What I did was totally uncalled for. I still believe in why I did it but-argh. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that. Can we please, please talk?”
I plop to my knees. “I’m on my knees!” No response. “I can bang my head against the floor like you did to the general if you want!” I call out. Then, I really do it. Ow. I look up. No response. Why the hell did I do that? This is stupid, he doesn’t even care. I’m about to get up when the door opens with a click. There stands Chen, in a fuzzy lime sweatshirt, eyebags, and a conflicted expression on his face.
“Let’s talk.”
We sit at the dining table, facing each other. Neither of us speaks. Finally, I open my mouth.
“I should not have done that yesterday. I acknowledge that, but I don’t understand why you won’t contact your family-“
“And how is that any of your business?” He coldly retorts.
“Well, because I’m your boyfriend! I do want to meet them. I care about you so I care about them as well.”
Chen closes his eyes and sharply inhales. “They don’t accept me being the way I am.”
“Well my family didn’t accept me being gay either, in fact my mother still won’t talk to me. But that doesn’t mean they hate me and that doesn’t mean they can’t change-“
“My family isn’t like your family.”
“Says you.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” His voice is frosty.
“Well, I just mean that you have a tendency to see the real world as a novel…”
“What are you talking abou-“
“Like with the New York thing and my blind date. You immediately assumed the worst without confirming anything or discussing it with me.” Chen stubbornly gazes past me at the counter behind me.
I sigh. “Look, all I’m saying is that maybe your family won’t react as badly as you think-“
“You don’t know anything!”
“Right, I don’t because you’ve never told me much.” He doesn’t respond.
I sigh again, then I come up with an idea. “If it’s your family I don’t think they’ll be as bad.”
“What?” He blinks.
“Well, they gave birth to you, right?” His eyes narrow.
“If they gave birth to someone as cute as you they can’t be all that bad.”
His face instantly blooms scarlet and his mouth opens and closes several times.
“You-” Unable to control myself, I chuckle.
“Don’t tease me!”
“No teasing, I’m serious.”
“You-you-” After a few minutes my laughter dies down. Chen is looking down, the blush has slowly faded.
Suddenly, I hear him say “I’ll try.”
I hurriedly raise my gaze. “Really-“
“But don’t push me. I’ll try to talk to them on my own time. Okay?” He looks directly into my eyes.
“…Okay.”
Around a week later, I’m at home lying on my bed and fiddling with my phone. I open Instagram, scroll through to see what people are doing, close out of it, try Snapchat, close out of that, browse the news…etc. Chen is out and I’m done with all my assignments.
As I’m scrolling, I see a message from Rodrigo.
“Man that stuff going on with GameStop is crazy dude!”
I respond: “I know, did you buy its stock? I just sold mine.”
From his side, there’s an indicator that he’s typing and I wait for his message.
Thud! I look up to see Chen slam my door open.
“Oh, you’re back-” I freeze on seeing his expression. His eyes are downcast and his mouth is turned down, his whole figure spells gloom.
“Uh, you okay?” I ask sitting up. He walks towards me mechanically, as if through a fog.
“Chen, you okay?” I ask, reaching for him. He mumbles something. “What?”
“…I called them.”
“What?”
“My family…I called them.”
My eyes widen. “Oh! You did? How was it…?” Ah, judging by his expression…
“My brother wants me to buy him an ultra rare Endgame Quantum Hoodie…where can I buy that?! Only you can help me Ram!!!”
I blink. “Wait-wait-wait what’s going on? What about your parents???”
“Oh. Well my mom nagged me, asking me to buy her some beauty and hair dye products. My dad said he needed some new tools to fix the bathroom.”
I stare at him. “Hah??? Holdup-didn’t you call them to tell them about me and stuff???”
“Oh. Mom told me to bring you around during break when I bring home the beauty products.”
“Wait, so it went fine???”
“Well besides the action figure, yeah.”
“Then why did you look like that???”
“Well…” He thinks for a moment. “I guess I was just tense…? Or I was expecting it to go worse.”
“But it went fine, right?”
“Yeah, yeah.” He nods, and slowly a smile blooms on his face. “I guess it did, didn’t it?”
I stare at him, speechless.
“It did! It did go well! Ram, my parents want me to come back home!” He cries, throwing his arms around me. Then he pauses. “But do they want me or the goods I’m bringing?” Then he shrugs.
I stare at him for a moment longer. Then I look up at the ceiling and sigh.
“What am I going to do with this little idiot!”
Chen, still in the throes of his joy, takes a moment to process my words. Several moments later: “Hey, who’s the idiot!?”
I burst out laughing.
“You-stop laughing!” I laugh even harder.
“Ram, if you keep laughing I’m going to…”
“To what?” I ask leaning back with a grin on my face. The next thing I know his lips are on mine and in my distraction, he pushes me down. Then, he quickly pulls away.
“That’s what you get!”
I stare at him. Then I leap up, grab him, and pull him against my chest. We tussle for a bit. Eventually exhausted, we just lay there for a few minutes. Then suddenly, Chen speaks.
“Ram…”
“Yeah?”
“Thank you.”
“You don’t need to say that. Just give me something in return.”
“What?” He asks eagerly, turning to face me with his gaze locked on my lips. Seeing the anticipation in his puppy dog like gaze, I’m tempted to tease him a bit.
“Hmm…let me think about it…”
His eyes are sparkling.
“Why don’t…you write a book about me?”
He pauses. “What?”
“Write a book about me and make me the protagonist, how does that sound?” He’s silent for a moment.
I open my mouth: “just kiddi-“
“I will.”
“Huh?”
He looks up at me, his soulful eyes alight with starlight. “My next book is about you. Ram, you are my protagonist.”
Thanks for this cute arc!!
Have a good one!
You too, thank you for all your comments!
Omg for a moment i expected something worse… chen…. lets go to a public speaking workshop or something
Thanks for the chapter € ^ *^)/// ~~ ♡♡♡♡♡
True, I guess he is a lot better at writing than verbal communication.😂 Thanks for reading!