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41. Awkward

"What are you doing in the kitchen again?" Bonita asked as she turned from the pot on the stove to see Minho coming to peer over her shoulder after having changed his shirt for the fifth time in the last half hour.

"Wanted to see if I could help," he said before pulling back, tugging at the collar of the blue polo shirt he wore. "Is it hot in here?"

Turning to let the food simmer, Bonita saw that Minho's face was slightly flushed, small pit stains under his arms. Grabbing him by an arm, she directed him to take a seat at the table.

"You're just panicking," Bonita said as she walked off to grab him a glass of water before returning to set it before him. "Just breathe. It's going to be fine."

"I don't know why I'm panicking," Minho said as he reached for the glass. "It's not like I care."

"If you didn't care, you wouldn't have gotten so worked up at the hospital," Bonita said as she moved to stroke her fingers through his hair from behind as he sipped the water. "Just tell yourself it'll only be for a few hours and then it's done."

"Yeah, but it'll be a few hours in purgatory," Minho muttered as he put the glass down, Mittens choosing that moment to rub up against the side of his leg from under the table. "I said 'purgatory', not 'purr-gatory', Mittens."

Chuckling Bonita left Minho at the table to go check on the food again. Once Seungmin and Hyunjin came to take their turn to watch Bang Chan, her and Minho had left to go to his place to get ready for his parent's arrival. Bonita had changed into an outfit she had left in a bag there before trying to cook them all a meal. Lifting the lid of the pot on the burner, she sighed.

"Do you think they're going to notice if we order takeout?" she asked.

Just then, a knock came at the door. A groan fell from Minho's lips as he looked at the clock on the wall.

"That can't be them. It's not time yet," Minho said as Bonita walked towards the door.

Peeking through the peephole, she chuckled as she moved to open it.

"It's not your parents, don't worry," Bonita said. "It's just I.N and Felix."

"What are they doing here?" Minho asked as Bonita shrugged, opening the door to look at the two of them standing on the steps.

"We came baring leftover food to eat while we do the the final script read before the presentation tomorrow," Felix said before noticing the apron that Bonita had on. "Is something going on?"

"His parents' are coming over," Bonita said, "but you both are actually lifesavers."

"We are?" Felix asked.

"Yes, you really are. Can we borrow the food? I kind of burnt the supper."

"Yeah, that's fine," I.N said. "I'm sorry. We didn't realize this was going on tonight."

"It's not your fault. With everything going on, we forgot to...shoot."

"You forgot to shoot?" Felix asked, looking confused right before Bonita grabbed I.N and Felix both by the collar and brought them inside.

"No...no, his parents are here. I see the car."

Another groan from Minho could be heard as Bonita quickly ushered I.N and Felix into Minho's spare room.

"Please stay here until they are gone."

"But..."

Bonita cut off Felix's protest attempt as she firmly shut the spare bedroom door behind her after taking the leftover food from him, walking over to stand by the table as Minho got up to answer the door.

"Good evening, Minho."

"Evening," he said in response to his father's greeting, standing aside so they could enter.

'Here we go,' thought Bonita as she watched Minho's parents enter the apartment and go over to the table she had helped set up earlier.

Two Eternity-Feeling Hours Later