Petty Not Pretty (HueningKaiXReader They/Them Pronouns)

Extended Ending

  It had been 8 years. 8 long years of studying and working my ass off to get where I've gotten today. I started out by obtaining my Bachelors Degree in Culinary Arts. It took 4 years and a whole lot of willpower. It took everything I had to stay away from my family for 4 whole years. I never went back home once. After I obtained my Bachelors Degree, I spent an extra 2 years in America to earn my Masters Degree. 6 years of my life, I had spent in America. 6 birthdays and Christmases celebrated alone. 6 years spent in an apartment alone. 6 years of hard work without being able to see the people who motivated me to go on.

  I was going to come home after 6 years, but a financial crisis kept me in America. I quickly found a job in a restaurant, being hired as a Sous Chef. I worked for another 2 years to make sure I would be financially stable back at home.

  There I sat on my flight back, thinking about home. I hadn't seen my home town since I was 18. I was old now, 26, the age where people began to find their spouses and settle down. My friends had long since gotten married and began to have kids. I barely managed to make a friend, save for one person who I met in culinary school. His name was Jackson and he was a professional Pâtissier. We got along well. He practically adopted me when I first got to America. Jackson was two years older than me and he took it upon himself to make me the child that he never had. He treated me like a four year old, but heaven knows I needed it at the time. I was alone in a foreign country that spoke a language I could barely speak fluently and to top of all that, I had broken up with the love of my life before coming to America. I had little to no motivation left, but Jackson got me through it.

The nervousness you feel when you're returning from being gone for 8 years, is immeasurable. Would people still remember me? Am I the same person? Has everything changed? Are the people still how I remember them? Am I still how they remember me? Have I changed? Have they changed? Are they going to like me? Are they going to disown me immediately? Questions floated around my head like a whirlpool of unending unanswered questions.

When the plane finally landed, I wasn't ready. My breathing was unsteady and I felt like I was going to pass out. I started to think that I wasn't ready. I wanted to stay on the plane and go back to America. I wanted anything but to leave that plane at that moment. But I had to. My knees shook as I walked slowly, trying to regain my breath. I look around at what now seemed like a foreign language. My skills were rusty. As I read the words, I struggled to remember some of their meanings. It's to be expected when you spend 8 years speaking primarily English, you lose your touch for your other language. Of course I still spoke to my parents occasionally which was probably the only reason I remembered as much as I did, but I hadn't spoken it in forever. It would eventually come back to me, but at that moment, I was struggling.

I managed to find my bags and make my way to the entrance, where my family said they were waiting. Every step I took, the more nervous I got. Nervous because I would be seeing them in person for the first time in 8 long years. Nervous because I wasn't sure if I could hold a proper conversation. Nervous because they had changed, and so had I. When I stepped outside and was greeted with familiar faces, the nerves flowed away and I was filled with relief. I had realized that I wasn't alone in a foreign country. I was home.

As well as relieved, I was surprised. Along with my parents stood 4 other familiar people I hadn't expected to see at all. Soobin, Yeonjun, Beomgyu, and Taehyun were all there, and man had they grown. They all had changed so much, but not in a bad way. They were so mature now. They radiated adult energy.

  "(Y/N)!" My mom yelled, practically in tears. Before I knew it, I was engulfed in the biggest lung crushing hug I've ever been in.

  "I missed you mom," I chuckled lightly. It felt like I was only gone for a few hours rather than years.