The New Girl | 𝘈𝘛𝘌𝘌𝘡

Fresh Start

ANNA

"Anna, I want to talk to you about something," Yoongi walks into the living room and sets down a mug of coffee in front of me before taking a sip of his own.

"Sure," I nod and take a sip, relishing in the natural sweetness of the plain black coffee.

"I've been so happy having you here the past couple of weeks," he begins. "I hope you know that I have no intention of replacing your family with myself, but I do want to be in your life as much as you'll allow me."

"Yoongi," I smile and sit forward, "you've been the perfect caregiver since we met. I'm so grateful for everything."

"I've been trying..." he shifts in his seat, which tells me we're approaching the real topic of the conversation.

"You can just say it," I tell him. "Whatever it is that you're avoiding saying, you can say it."

"I... guess you could say that I don't know what sort of things parents are supposed to tell their kids... but there's someone I want to introduce you to." He smiles nervously and bounces his knee while he waits for me to respond.

"Well, I've already met half of your friends as my friends' parents," I joke.

There's a knock at the front door, and his smile grows considerably.

"Well... I want to introduce you to someone else... someone that is very important to me." He rubs his hands together and stands from his spot on the couch.

"Do I get to meet your girlfriend today?" I squeal with excitement. I've secretly been hoping that Yoongi was seeing someone. I didn't want my biological father to be alone.

"Not exactly," his face flushes as he opens the door. Standing in the hallway is quite the handsome man with his hair combed neatly and flowers in his hand.

"Is it alright if I come in?" The mystery man asks, clearly trying to contain his nerves.

"Anna," Yoongi puts an arm around him and guides him inside, "this is my boyfriend, Kihyun. Kihyun, I'd like you to meet my daughter."

"Hi Anna," Kihyun takes a couple of cautious steps towards me. "It's really nice to meet you."

"Oh my god!" I don't know why, but I'm even more excited to meet my father's boyfriend. But then I take in the shocked faces of the two men and feel bad. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't act so surprised. I just... didn't consider—"

"—that your dad might be gay?" Yoongi chuckles. "Well, technically, I'm pansexual, but yes, your old man has a boyfriend. There are no exact instructions on how to come out to your kid, but I really want you to know each other."

I nod happily and look at Kihyun. "Can I hug you?"

"Of course, you can!" He beams as he pulls me into a hug, and I try my best to contain my goofy grin. "I was hoping the three of us could go to lunch, does that sound alright with you?"

"Absolutely," I tell him. "It's my last day before I go back to school."

"I hear you're a dance major," Kihyun exclaims. "It makes sense that you got your performance skills from your dad. He was something to see on stage back in the day."

"Oh God, babe, please don't start the trip down memory lane," Yoongi fake whines.

"Calm down, you egomaniac, I came for Anna." Kihyun chuckles and offers me his arm. "Miss Anna and I are going to lunch now. Feel free to join us."

ROSE

"Hyunjin, I swear to God, if you don't do the damn choreography correctly for once..." the boy playing Professor Callahan groans while the one playing Warner dances like someone who has had way too much caffeine.

"I'm just expressing myself, Seungmin," Hyunjin replies while continuing his random dance.

"Let's go from the part where Elle finds Warner at Harvard," Chris, our student director, calls to us.

"Gotcha, hyung!" Hyunjin bounces into place and falls back into his character. "Elle?"

"Warner?!" I drop my jaw in faux surprise. "Oh my god, I totally forgot you go here!"

"What are you doing here?" 'Warner' looks at me with wide eyes, and I shrug.

"I go here," I tell him.

"You got into Harvard?" He scoffs.

"What?" I chirp. "Like it's hard?"

Hyunjin opens his mouth to say the next line, but he bursts into a fit of laughter before getting a word out.

"Every time..." Seungmin groans off-stage.

"I can't help it!" Hyunjin says through his laughter. "She just—it's so cute! You try being this close to someone this adorable and keeping a straight face!"

"You know you can't laugh during a performance, right?" Chris calls from the seats as he watches us attempt to run through the lines.

"I'll get it, I promise," Hyunjin tells him as he calms down. "Tell her to be less cute!"

My face heats up a little, but I try my hardest not to show how flustered I feel. Hyunjin is really cute, and his talking about how adorable he finds me makes me want to hide from embarrassment.

"Alright, guys," Chris calls out, "Rose and San, go practice your lines for a bit while I work out some blocking."

San walks over to me and guides me away from the rest of the class. "Noona is quite fond of you."

"She's really sweet," I reply. "She said she had been living in Hong Kong for the past year. I bet you missed her."

"I didn't even know she was coming back," he tells me. "We haven't gotten to hang out very much. Maybe we could go do something after class?"

"I'm meeting Anna for lunch," I lie. The truth is, I don't want to give him the wrong idea anymore. I still haven't had the chance to tell him I want to be friends, but I know I need to soon.

"She's coming back tomorrow, right?" San looks at me with genuine concern in his eyes, and it just reminds me that I still need to confess the truth to him.

"Yeah, her dad—well, her biological dad—or I guess Yoongi—is bringing her back tonight so that she can get back to classes." I need to find the right moment to tell him the truth, that I don't like him as more than my friend, but I need to find the right way to—"I just want to be friends."

San looks confused at first, but when my words register, he visibly tries to hide his disappointment. "I, uh... I see... you waited until just now to tell me?"

"I didn't know what to say," I mumble, guilt creeping its way into my mind as San tries not to show how upset he truly is.

He doesn't say anything for a moment. Both of us stand in silence as our classmates rehearse in the background, but the noise is unnoticed. All I can hear is San's disappointment and my failure as a friend.

"You could've told me sooner." San's shoulder brushes against mine as he walks to the door and abruptly leaves the classroom.