touch || choi soobin

Chapter One

     "Aren't you glad you came with me to Florida?" my mother asked, in a bittersweet manner, as we got into the car she ordered from her phone.

If I'm being honest, I'd like to disagree. My plan for summer vacation was to fly to New York because being a med student for 10 months straight is exhausting so all I wanted to do was give myself a long-deserved break.

I gave her a timid smile and nodded. She didn't seem to be rather pleased with my answer so she continued to talk, "Vernon really wants to meet you, love. I wish you could just give him a chance."

And there she goes again, trying to tug at my heart for some sort of guilt trip. I sighed at her statement as I proceeded to take my right earphone out. I didn't want to have this argument all over again, that's all we did for the past few months that I was at Manila and she was in New York. I carefully picked out the words in my mind before responding:

     "He seems like a pretty great guy, mom. I just don't want to have this conversation again. I agreed to your terms so can we please just drop the subject until we get back to New York?"

She finally made a retreat and reached for a pocketbook in her purse then after pulling down her glasses from her head and began reading. I wanted to roll my eyes but wasn't confident enough because if my mother catches me, it would be the end of my 19-year-old life. I opted to just put back my right earphone in and continued listening to whatever was on my playlist.

The house we were staying at was her boyfriend's, Vernon. He's also a recently divorced 40-something Filipino and my mother met him at one of her church's inter-state Singles Get Together. It was basically a Catholic speed-dating agenda for adults.

When I found out that my mother started dating again, I was thrilled. She deserved it since my father was abusive to my mother and I. He never once touched my younger and older brother, though, that's why they were under his custody and I'm under mom's. But I wasn't ecstatic to find out that she was ready to go steady with a guy she'd only been dating for seven months. Including our past, it really isn't difficult to decipher as to why I'm not necessarily glad to meet with Vernon, nonetheless stay at his home with his daughter for a few weeks.

     "We're here." my mother muttered, a hint of nervousness in her tone.

I looked at the house and it was pretty nice. It wasn't a Beverly Hills pad but it was decent and was definitely family-friendly. The fact that it doesn't look like a Bachelor's Pad gave me a bit of relief to be honest.

As we got off the car, a man and a young woman walked in our direction.

     "Welcome to Florida!" the man spoke as he pulled my mother in for a hug. Her smile was beaming. I haven't seen her smile like that since the day I graduated high school. I was just staring at them from a distance, the young woman also hugged my mother and they all seemed happy.

The three of them looked like a happy family in those cheesy commercials that trick you into buying houses, or book vacations on a new app or website. Those type of families that I was always envious of because I never experienced it all my life.

       "Ara, come here. Come meet Vernon and Andy," my mother beckoned and I slowly walked towards them. The two strangers smiled brightly at me and the woman instantly pulled me into a hug.

       "I'm so excited to finally meet you. I'm Andy!" she says as she broke our one-sided embrace. I gave her a shy smile and a nod. I wasn't used to receiving physical affection, especially from a stranger. "You have such a pretty name. Your name means beauty in Korean, right?"

       "It means a lot of things... but I think that's one of them." I say and ended with an awkward chuckle. Andy, however, doesn't break our eye contact and beams me another smile, revealing she has a dimple on her left cheek.