My eyes flew to Esty who choked, mouth open.
“You didnotjust say that?” she said, glancing between Jae and I like she could determine whether or not she had hallucinated his sex joke.
“Huh? What’s a hand necklace mean?” my mom asked, looking to Jae and then Esty who was fake gagging.
“It means he likes be choked during s-e-x,” Esty said gagging again as she silently spelled the word out, probably so the kids wouldn’t repeat it.
My mom’s brows went up as she eyed me and my dad snorted, covering up his laugh with a cough. I completelyignored my grandparents and the rest of my family, the back of my neck burning with slight embarrassment.
I focused on sending Jae an‘I’ll give you a matching fucking one later, dickface’glare. But he just smiled like he was an angel.
“He’s. Joking. Mom.” I turned to smile at her. “He’s just joking. We just got a little carried away sparring yesterday. I’m fine.”
“Jesus, Jae. You know you boys are supposed to tap out, right?” Uncle Q said. Auntie slapped him upside the head yelling at him in Korean.
I felt bad that he was taking the blame for this, but I didn’t have any other viable explanation. And to be fair, he seemed to be enjoying this a little too much, humiliating me in front of our entire family. What a fucking reunion.
My mom sighed, before finally releasing me, allowing my dad to pull me in for a hug. I clapped him on the back as he pulled away.
“Good to see you, bud. You look good.”
I nodded with a tight smile, and my sisters pulled me into a hug.
“I know you’re lying dip,” Esty whispered before releasing me.
“Hi, Nox, we missed you.”
I rolled my eyes and playfully shoved Esty away. She punched me in the pec, and I winced, the scratches on my chest sore. She eyed me skeptically.
“Shut up, that did not actually hurt. You’ve gone soft.”
I rolled my eyes again, pulling out of Eden’s side hug and waving at Seb who was holding the hands of their two kids. My chest ached with how much they had grown. I cleared my throat, eyeing Baba and Ded who were standing watching the reunionunfold. I hadn’t seen Baba since I left for basic training, except for a FaceTime call over the holidays.
She eyed me with an equally tight smile and my shoulders rounded with shame.
“Um, car rental is this way.”
“Right,” my mom said with another bright smile, swiping tears off her face. “How should we do this? Who’s ridin’ with who?”
I eyed the group of them, overwhelmed by seeing every person I’d been avoiding for the last four years.
“I’ll take my mom and dad, and Baba and Ded?” Jae paused giving them a look to confirm and they nodded.
“I can drive four people,” I said, eyeing the rest of the group.
“I’ll ride with you, honey,” my mom said, looping her arm around my waist like she was afraid I’d disappear if she wasn’t next to me.
“Okay,” I strung the word out, anxiously eyeing Eden and Sebastian.
“We were actually going to do the rental car, that way we didn’t need to worry about car seats fitting in the back seat.”
I nodded at Eden. “Alright. So, dad, mom and Esty, you can follow Jae to the car, and I’ll meet you there after I make sure Sebastian is squared away.”
My mom seemed reluctant to leave me but gave me a squeeze before following Jae towards the crosswalk and the parking garage.
I offered to push the luggage cart that had two car seats on it and a Pack ‘N Play and Sebastian obliged with a grateful smile, taking the suitcase from Eden.
Sebastian squeezed my shoulder as he walked beside me. My stomach sank, thinking about how I was hiding from him the biggest secret of my life. Thinking about how happy he would be if he knew the truth.
