Family, mental breakdowns and strawberry cake

Official

What I don‘t love though, is the departure time of our plane early on the next morning.
We are flying back to London where we are going to part ways with Yoongi and Joon and meet Purple, all of us more or rather less ready to fly to Korea so I can, well… meet their mother.
My nerves are killing me from the second I have to stop cuddling up against Jungkook to leave the plane back in England.
I temporarily forget about it though when Purple runs towards me, attracting the attention of every single other person in the airport with her hollered greeting but I couldn’t care less when I embrace her small body with my arms and watch her talk about her own summer so far with happiness illuminating her features, a smile cast on my and Jungkook‘s face as we make our way towards the right gate, a couple of hours we need to spend here ahead of us.
— 
The flight seems to take forever, but finally we step out of the airport on the next day around lunch time.
The outside waiting area is nothing special at all, mostly grey concrete, only a few cars waiting for the person they wanna pick up.
As we walk along the street, I spot a silver Mercedes that is very chic and elegant and only a mere moment after I noticed it, a small woman climbs out of the driver‘s seat and hollers with a warm and full voice: “Purple! Jungkook! Took you two long enough!“
So this is her…
I take a couple of seconds to look at the twins‘ mother‘s appearance.
She is wearing a white jumpsuit with long and wide sleeves, the legs of it reaching her mid-thighs.
As she walks around what I assume is actually her car, I discover a beautiful red floral print on the white fabric, sneaking around the legs and torso part of her jumpsuit in the form of a twine… and battered white adidas on her feet?
She is also wearing a huge sunhat and sunglasses so the only part of her face I can see are her small chin… and her glistening lips that are pulled back into a perfect smile.
Red lipgloss.
Something in my chest curls together into an ice-cold clump and I avoid wincing, remembering to put on a smile rather than drown in nightmare-ish memories of my own… mother.
Already.
Last but not least I notice her long, slightly curly black hair that she pulled together in the same way Purple likes to.
While I silently look at his mother, Jungkook just rushes towards her with an adorable smile on his lips, pulling her into his arms and twirling her around, making her giggle in a surprisingly cute manner.
I unconsciously wince.
Isn’t that kind of inappropriate?
Touching her like that?
I‘m sure she is going to scold him any second from now, her slim fingers sure to slap the back of his head.
But she doesn‘t.
She just laughs and struggles to escape his arms so she can hug her daughter, pulling her close and pressing a kiss to each of her cheeks.
Now, she lets go of Purple and, after picking up her hat and placing it on the hood of her car, she whirls around to me, her hair flying through the air and her hands quick to pull her glasses off her face.
She almost has Jungkookie‘s eyes
Is the first thing that comes to my mind, and I should not be intimidated by the look of a woman the size of my tiny best friend the next one as I gulp and smile.
And just like that, our gazes meet and interlock and slowly, a gorgeous smile spreads her lips and I discover with wonder that her more honey-colored eyes smile as well.
I try to remember how to move and plaster a smile on my face that probably looks more like a grimace and I bow slightly.
“Hello Mrs. Jeon.“ I mumble, avoiding her gaze when I straighten up again.
“So you must be Taehyung? I‘d say I‘ve heard a lot about you but my kids are not really communicative to their mother these days“, she shoots them a glare and I flinch, but the twins don’t even look her way and continue stacking our luggage in the trunk.
She turns back to me and before I know what‘s happening, she‘s hugging me and my entire body freezes.
What is she doing?
Surely this is a joke, shouldn’t she just nod at my greeting and… dismiss me or something?
Just… let me be?
As my thoughts race, she lets go of me again and smiles, studying my face.
Surely she will notice the bags under my eyes and how shitty I look from the long flights.
But she only smiles even wider.
“Such a handsome young man my kids brought home. How old did you say you are?“
I try to keep my voice formal as I am used to in these kind of… relations, and respond while trying to smile.
“18 years old…. ma‘am.“
She giggles and embarrassment washes over me, anxiety bubbling up and tightening my chest oh so painfully, making it hard to breathe all of a sudden.
Of course she‘d find me ridiculous, how could she not?
“No need to be so formal, Taehyung, since they“, she gestures in the direction of her kids,“ brought you here to our home, you‘re basically family from now on. So just call me Areum.“
…. Family?
Hm… okay, whatever that means I guess.
Luckily, the short drive is filled with Purple‘s happy voice, repeating her summer stories.
Jungkook and I are sitting in the back, his hand caressing mine and it is only now that I finally manage to breathe again.