Enhanced || JJK

October 17th 2073

'Hey Moon, it's me, Jungkook... from school. I'm really sorry for today. How Somin acted, it was unforgivable. And I'm sorry for every time that I laughed about your tilted glasses, I never meant to offend you and I was definitely not mocking you for being a natural or wearing glasses. I wanted to make sure you didn't think that, because that's definitely not the case. Actually, I like your glasses and I think you look cute when they get tilted. Whatever... what are you doing tomorrow? I can come with you to buy the new glasses...'

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That Friday night, it was Jungkook's first dinner at my place. My parents had waited to see if it was something serious, before inviting him to our house to get to know him better. And now, after almost three months of dating, he was having dinner with us.
We were also celebrating the end of our internship period. Our three months of working on our projects were over and we both felt bittersweet about it. It had gone very well for both of us, both Dr. Jung and Dr. Min were happy with our results and even Dr. Kim seemed satisfied. They even invited us to come back after graduation and have a job interview. We were both excited about the offer and had started discussing it between us, but in the end we decided we wanted to focus on graduation first and then think about it later. We still had a couple of months before it and we had to write the thesis about our projects and present it to our professors at the university, so we had already a lot on our plate.

"I say we can make a toast to celebrate you both getting through this experience!" My dad lifted his glass excited. He was happy even though I could tell he was still a bit awkward around Jungkook, as was my mom, but that's because they didn't know him.
"So, Jungkook, we're glad you accepted our invite. It's just, we never really saw her this happy about someone... I'm not even sure she dated anyone else..." My mom said after the toast.
"Mom!" I reprimanded her, even though Jungkook knew that he was the first guy my parents heard about, because he was the only one who was really important to me and with whom I had had a serious relationship.
"Of course, I was very happy about the invite... In all honesty, I was also a bit nervous, because she talks so highly of you both and I wanted to make a good impression... I mean, not just an impression, I wanted you to get to know me for me and see that I'm not a bad person, despite what must've happened with my parents... I'm very sorry, by the way, I don't know what they did but I can imagine..."
I was taken aback by Jungkook's speech and my parents seemed to have the same reaction.
"Oh, no, don't worry about it, we sure won't judge you based on the impression your parents left on us... Moreover we only met them once, a long time ago, I'm sure that if we got to know them better it would be different..." My mom tried to answer politely, while giving me the scolding look for having spilled to Jungkook what they had told me about his parents. I mean, I didn't imagine he was going to bring that up at his first dinner with my parents.
"I wouldn't be so sure..." Jungkook answered under his breath, but I was the only one to hear it.

The rest of the dinner was weird, but in a good way. As soon as he got more comfortable, Jungkook started talking about anything, from our time at the ALF Lab to his thoughts on some of the latest news, then asked my parents a lot of questions about them, their jobs, their upbringings and how they met. His social skills were always good, but I thought he was going to be more nervous around my parents. Instead, he seemed to like them and feel comfortable around them and they were starting to warm up to him as well.
"Were you trying to win a prize in there?" I asked sarcastically once we were outside my front door, after he had already said goodbye to my parents.
"What? No, I was genuinely having a good time! Your parents are great..." He said with a smile.
"Then should I meet yours?" I asked, feeling like it was probably the right thing to do after he had met my parents.
His smile faded.
"I... I don't think it's a good idea..."
"Do they even know about us?" I asked.
"I never tell them about my stuff, so..."
"Oh, okay..." I said, trying not to sound too disappointed.
"No, but it's not that this isn't important, I just... I don't talk to them that much, unless it's necessary... I mean, my brother and sister know, that's what matters!" He made an effort to reassure me, but after all I had still no idea of the type of relationship he had with his parents, since he never talked about it, so I couldn't completely understand what he meant.
He probably understood that that was the issue and he continued.
"Uhm.. How do I explain this? Oh, right!" He then said, getting his phone out of his pocket, while I also remembered that another month had gone by and that I could read another one of his text drafts.

After he had showed the third text to me, I smiled at his sweetness. I remembered him saying something similar to me recently, about how he liked all of the things I thought he was only teasing me about, but reading his 17 year old self saying the same thing had a different effect.

"Why didn't you send it? I honestly thought you just felt pity for me that day..." I asked him.
"Because... I didn't want you to know! And also because I... I was still too young to understand that what my parents think is absolutely wrong..." He admitted, looking down.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, you have to understand... they are not like me or my siblings... Although they tried to teach us their beliefs, we never really felt comfortable with them, but we tried to comply..."
He then paused as if he was contemplating if he should say the next part, then he spoke again.
"They... they are very obsessed with the idea that GM people are the only ones who should be in charge of things, because according to them they are 'genetically better'... Even though my parents are definitely not GM because that didn't exist back when they were born, they think that by making us that way automatically gave us the right to be and feel better than other people... and so they always expected us to be the best at everything and to only hangout with people of our 'league'... It seriously disgusts me to tell you something like this, but this is the only way you can understand why it's a bad idea to meet them..."

After this answer, I was left speechless. I always had this idea that GM people feel more entitled to be in charge, but I never thought about how their parents were raising them. And despite already being familiar with the subject, because of Tae and his relationship with this parents, Jungkook's situation seemed to be on another level. Now I could really understand him, I understood why he needed the support group, I understood why he wanted to de-enhance his future kids. He wanted to be a better parent than his ever were and I was left with a deep sense of admiration, because it's not easy to create your own beliefs and be able to distinguish right from wrong when your parents are teaching you otherwise. It made him look so much cooler and stronger in my eyes, so I smiled.

"You don't need to feel bad about it, it's their opinion not yours. That's all that matters. Although, I feel like if you keep this wall up, the situation is never gonna solve itself. And I understand if you think that just keeping them out of your life is gonna spare you so much pain, but if there is any part of you that wishes to patch things up with them, I think you should at least give it a try, or you'll regret it", I said, trying to be tactful and not overstepping his boundaries.
He laughed, which took me by surprise. "Have you been talking to Jimin? I swear he keeps saying the exact same thing!" I was glad he had not taken it the wrong way.
"No, I haven't spoken to him since the last time we all grabbed coffee together", I answered with a smile.
His expression turned serious again and it seemed like he was deep in his thoughts.
"Yeah, maybe... maybe you guys are right. I just never knew how to deal with this situation and I thought that just shutting them out was gonna solve everything and it has been easier, since they're working most of the time, but I still feel like I miss them... Even though I think that their opinion on that subject is absolutely unacceptable, I still find myself longing for their affection. Is that totally wrong?" He asked, looking down, while he fidgeted with my fingers.
"Of course not! They are your parents, it's the most natural thing to love them and wanting their love back. And I'm sure they love you, but without communication you'll never find a way to express it to each other. And if you think their opinions are wrong, just tell them! And have a discussion, fight with them if you need! That's how it works, at least that's how I do it with my parents and even if we fight we love each other, so we always try to find a common ground".

His head was still low and I couldn't see his expression but I could tell that he was listening, I just didn't know if he liked what I was saying. After a few seconds he looked at me and smiled, his eyes slightly teary.
"Yeah, you're absolutely right, I guess I never had the courage to stand up to them. But now I do, because I also have someone to fight for", he then placed a kiss on my lips.

He was talking about me and that made my heart flutter. I could see the determination in his eyes, so I knew he really meant it and that from that day forward he was really going to try and have a serious conversation with his parents. That was the only way he could really move forward and heal from what had been weighing down on him. And I was happy for him. And for us.