Chapter 40 Minji's perspective

*A few hours before Wonwoo's performance*

Minji tossed her mobile phone on her bed and headed towards bathroom to wash up after a whole day of hanging out with her friends.

Just when she closed the door of her bathroom her phone started buzzing with a low and peaceful ringtone accompanying it's vibration. It didn't stop ringing for a long time and the missed calls kept piling up until she came out freshened up and noticed it.

Just by the sight of her phone ringing, Minji felt a bit annoyed and helpless as well as a bit guilty as she knew who was calling her. In the past she would have happily picked up the call from this number but these two days she has only felt dread whenever she got calls from this person.

The person who was calling her was Mingyu's mother.

She has been in touch with Mingyu's parents for a month now, though Mingyu still doesn't know about it.

It was when Mingyu introduced her as his girlfriend in front of his friends when they started dating that Dokyeom, who is chatty and calls the parents of his friends more frequently that the friends themselves spilled the beans about it by mistake to Mingyu's parents one days. Hearing the news of her son dating and having a girlfriend, Mingyu's mother was so excited that she kept requesting Dokyeom to give Minji's contact info to her and Minji of course happily agreed when Dokyeom asked for her permission to share it. Minji isn't a shy or reserved person to refuse such a simple request from her boyfriend's mother.

As for why Mingyu doesn't know about it is because Mingyu's parents decided to keep it a secret from him cause they were waiting for him to officially introduce her to them.

Minji had always felt very special about being able to chat freely with Mingyu's parents. Especially because they are really a sweet couple who are amicable and gentle towards her. Through the phone though things were awkward for Minji at first but later Mingyu's mother and her would talk for hours about Mingyu's likes and dislikes as well as about Mingyu's childhood and many other things.

When thinking about the past, Minji started feeling melancholic. Those days when they were dating each other were really happy days, at least for her.

Now that things are not same as they were in the past, what should she say or how should she reply to Mingyu's mother? She feels lost.

She is unable to imagine the pain Mingyu's enthusiastic parents would feel when they would get to know that their son likes a guy. She herself had been feeling utterly defeated and gloomy for days now.

It's not that she has anything against gay people or is opposed to them as her favorite cousin himself is gay and she has never discriminated against him. But the same can't be said about Mingyu's parents. After all it's no secret that they are already planning for his marriage and their grandchildren.

But she can't keep on ignoring their calls forever. At first she thought that Mingyu's mother would give up calling her after she didn't pick it for these two day but it seems like her not picking up the call had made her more anxious instead and so Mrs. Kim has been calling her insistingly today.

Minji's thoughts were in mess as she started thinking about what she should do if Mingyu's mother called her again. It's not like Mrs. Kim is disrupting her day to day life by calling her continuously, because they have fixed time which they have agreed upon in the evening to chat leisurely. It's past one hour since the fixed time now.

She started biting her nails as she paced back and forth, her whole body tense and taut.

Finally her pacing seemed to have helped her as she started recalling the day she got to know Mingyu's and Wonwoo's relationship.

The night before that day, she was already having an instinctive hunch that something wrong was about to happen with her. She was feeling fearful for no reason and felt like chatting with Mingyu to divert her thoughts, so she opened her chat box with Mingyu.

After opening it she saw that Mingyu still has not seen the message she had sent earlier. She felt stunned.

'What is he so busy with that he had not even seen my message let alone reply or did something happen to him?' Her heart started pounding loudly.

Normally she wouldn't bother to think too much even when she doesn't receive Mingyu's reply to her messages sometimes but it's the first time that he haven't even seen her message for such a long time. This is very unusual and unlikely to happen.

'What if he has gotten into an accident?! Is this why she is feeling that something's wrong today??' She anxiously kept sending messages to inquire about Mingyu.

Later, when she received Wonwoo's text she didn't feel at ease but instead her hunch strengthened. She started feeling unstable for some reason. Though she felt relieved that Mingyu is safe but she also started feeling more fearful in her heart. She tried to calm herself down but she couldn't help but think, 'There's no reason for Mingyu to ignore her message if he is okay and is with Wonwoo, so why....?'

She though about it for a whole night and wondered if she was feeling like this because her relationship with Mingyu has not advanced to the next step? Mingyu and her are barely intimate these days and she keeps feeling like Mingyu is slipping from her hands. It seems like if she wants to stabilize her position in Mingyu's heart she must have sex with him as soon as possible!

After making such decision she decisively bought condoms of all size and all the other things required for sex for first timers in a supermarket store. Only after buying these things did she start feeling embarrassed and shy because of her actions. To avoid feeling embarrassed in front of cashier she also bought different types of snacks and drinks.

It's been two days but Minji still feels embarrassed about it, especially when she got to know about Mingyu's feelings for Wonwoo. She started feeling that wanting to have sex with Mingyu was her own wishful thinking, it made her feel stupid and angry!

Later after scolding Wonwoo she felt like digging  a hole to bury herself from embarrassment so she impulsively handed the bag containing those things to Wonwoo. Anyway those things were of no use to her and from the way she saw Wonwoo and Mingyu kissing, she felt like it might come handy to them.

Though later she felt more and more heartbroken.

Thinking about it now she remembers, that day she had said to Mingyu that she won't let him off easily. He should pay for breaking her heart.

Her phone started ringing again with caller ID being Mingyu's mother.

This time she didn't ignore the call but picked it up determinedly.

Yes, let him pay!

"Hello, Aunty....."

*****

After she finished talking with Mingyu's mother, Minji sat on her bed for a long while, lost deep in her thoughts.

After breaking from the daze she had built in her mind, she picked up her phone and went through her contacts before stopping on Wonwoo's contact number and dialed it.

When Wonwoo picked up her call, her  voice suddenly started sounding anxious and her tone was filled with guilt.

She said to Wonwoo, "O-oppa, I'm sorry. I have made a mistake.. P-please don't be angry!"

From the other side she could feel Wonwoo being puzzled due to her words as he asked her what did she do and why was she apologizing to him?

After hearing Wonwoo's questions, she braced herself and said everything in one go!

"O-ppa, I'm sorry. I was too angry and I'm familiar with Mingyu's parents so today when they called me I couldn't keep your secret and blurted out that you and Mingyu are in a romantic relationship now. I'm really really sorry oppa! Please forgive me! Please!" Minji said almost tearfully.

She said all these things a bit incoherently but she knows that Wonwoo could still make sense of these words and understand what she wants to say.

Wonwoo from other end was silent for a while. Probably he was feeling too stunned to speak anything.

Minji started feeling more and more jittery after not receiving any response from him.

"Oppa..?" She called out to probe him.

Wonwoo seemed to have came back to himself after hearing her calling him and then said with a tremble in his voice, "Yo-you.... You do know that it takes time for people to accept their sexuality, do you KNOW OR NOT!"

Wonwoo's tone increased significantly at the end of his sentence.

Minji felt like she is doomed for real. Wonwoo is really angry with her.

"Y-eeeesssss....." She said fearfully. She knows all these things as Wonwoo had told her about it before.

"You know that Mingyu was a straight guy until recently. He has so much to figure out and it's not easy for a straight guy like him to accept and start adapting to things... and-and the reaction of people. It..s a slow process... He..." Minji could feel that Wonwoo was feeling at loss as he wasn't even able to finish what he wanted to say.

But actually he didn't need to say these things as she know about it without even him saying it. She has seen her cousin struggle hard and accept himself when he found out that he liked boys and not girls. Also at that time he wasn't even willing to come out to his parents even though they were chill about most of the things. She knew these things but she still did it and now she is feeling really guilty.

But some things are a 'must' to be done.

So she said, "Oppa.. Please listen to me. Now there's nothing we can do about it. We can only anticipate positive response from Mingyu's parents. You can also probe Mingyu's attitude towards you like this. See if he is serious about you. Take it as a test. See if he is willing to be by your side through all ups and downs, thicks and thins."

After hearing her words, Wonwoo fell silent on the other end and it made Minji sigh sadly. She knows her brother too well.

She doesn't know if what she has done would result in Mingyu coming out of closest or Wonwoo.

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