before & after ‣ 엔하이픈

015 ; past

flashback to the summer (5)

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AERI

Jake's parents were oddly nice with her, too much even.

Aeri sat at Jake's car, repeatedly looking at herself with the camera of her phone to make sure that she wasn't going to go inside his family home looking like a mess. When she first heard from Jake that she received an invitation from his parents to have dinner at their house, she knew she couldn't just waltz in there with her jeans and shirt with the most inappropriate paraphernalia. Since she didn't own any nice dresses, she had to go out and buy herself one with some of her hard earned money, not that it costed too much, she just planned to spend those money on something else that didn't have anything to do with impressing another person's family.

Now, she sat at Jake's car, preparing herself whatever may come the moment she enters that massive house she once entered. 

"If you don't want to do this, Aeri, we don't have to do this. We can go anywhere but here." Jake insisted that if she wasn't comfortable with this, she didn't have to do it.

She took a sharp breath. "Nope, I got this. Your mother liked me once, let's just hope she continues to do the same thing for the rest of the night." She keeps a brave front in front of him when she was actually deadly petrified.

"There's just something about you that is so likeable for parents." He chuckles as he exits the car to open the door for her.

"Probably because I'm pretty." She answers as he helps her get down in the car.

"That you are." Jake winks as he walks with her all the way to the entrance of his house. A maid opened the door for them and allowed them entry to the same foyer Aeri remembered visiting once. 

The house still looked the same as it once was when she first visited, but that was a given since it hasn't been that long of a time since she last stepped foot there. Before Aeri could ready herself for anything, his mother appeared from the side and quickly hugged the two and gave each a peck in the cheek. She was so ecstatic to see Aeri that it made her even more nervous because it seemed the older woman has already put her in some pedestal that she knew very much she could not live up to. 

"It's so nice to finally have you back here, Aeri." She says, holding the younger one's hands. "Come! The two of you arrived just in time. Dinner was just about to start."

Jake led her to the dining room which she did not remember seeing the first time she came to this place, but mostly because she remained in the comfort of their living room initially. She was made to sit right next to Jake and across his mother in the long table filled with so much meals that she deemed would go right to waste because there was no way four of them would be able to finish it all. And somehow, the whole setting only continuously reminded her of the difference in their status. Her brother's income would never be able to afford every dish served to her right now.

But Aeri has always felt small her whole  life, that realization alone wasn't going to break her spirit anytime soon.

"Tell us, Aeri. What does your parents do?" That was the first question of the day, one she highly expected before coming there.

"My father passed away when I was very young and my mother isn't working, so my brother has been providing for our family ever since." She tells them the truth. 

Their expression quickly changes to pity. "I'm very sorry for that, Aeri. It must've been hard for you and your brother."

She quickly smiles in hopes that they see her ability to stay uplifted despite the hardness she and her brother has gone through ever since they were children. "It's alright. My father each left us a trust fund, which I would only use for my education."

"It's reassuring that your father still left you something after his death. Your parents seem to care for you a lot." His father said so cluelessly that it left her clutching the ends of her dress to avoid saying anything she knew she wasn't allowed to say.