Chapter Text
Jaya leaned against the side of her car and scrolled through her phone as she waited for her parents to get there. Sure, it was her birthday but going to a restaurant this fancy was honestly unexpected. Every year it’d either be a small celebration at her house or she’d celebrate with her friends because her parents were too busy, but the way they suddenly brought up the idea of going out to dinner like this made her think they had something important to tell her. She couldn’t think of what that could be, considering she basically had everything she wanted at that moment but…
As she was texting her friend group an apology for ditching them, Jaya heard the sound of another car park in front of her, and she looked up. Just as she was expecting, it was her parents! It took a few extra seconds for them to get out after they’d parked the car, and from what it looked like through the window, those seconds looked tense. The mood changed completely when both parents got out of the car though, and Jaya could see both of them grinning as they went over to greet her.
“Jaya!! You’re early for once.” Her dad came over and gave her a hug, waiting for her to hug back before letting go and patting her shoulder twice. “How long have you been waiting?”
She put her phone away after her dad pulled away from the hug and shrugged, smiling as her mom went in for a hug as well. “Oh it hasn’t been that long don’t worry, I was just close when you called me earlier.”
After pulling away, her mom took one step back and looked Jaya up and down before giving her a look. “You were going to that club again?”
Jaya looked down at herself for a second before shrugging again in response. It wasn’t that revealing… “Wellll I would’ve dressed a little more conservatively if I knew this was gonna happen ahead of time. Which— What’s up with the venue, you don’t have like a surprise birthday party planned for me or anything right??”
Her dad started walking them to the doors of the building as her mother answered her question. “We just had some fun news to tell you and we thought it’d be nice to tell you here while we eat.”
She didn’t say anything and instead gave her a confused look in response as they all entered the restaurant.
Jaya watched as her dad talked to the hostess about reservations he’d made and decided to just look around as she waited. There were plenty of people inside, and just as many empty tables too. She could just barely hear faint jazz music playing in the background, however it was made even harder to hear with the chatter of men from another room. It sounded like they were playing billiards.
Soon the hostess led them to their table and the three of them sat down, taking a moment to look through their menus.
Once she’d figured out what she wanted, Jaya glanced at both of her parents and frowned when she saw they were just quietly looking through their menus. She put her own down and leaned back in her chair, crossing her arms. “Are you gonna tell me what it is yet or…”
Her dad smiled a little at her restlessness and shook his head, “What’s the hurry? We have all night.”
She scrunched her face in response before sighing and picking her menu up again. This was going to take forever wasn’t it…
A waiter came to fill their glasses and take their orders, and left pretty quickly once he had what he needed. Both of her parents ordered a shared big dish while Jaya ordered something simpler. Judging by the reference picture on the menu it was probably a sandwich, but the description did not describe one at all.
After the waiter left, it was quiet between the three of them and and Jaya decided to speak up to try to make it less awkward. “So um… Aai you said the Dawn branch was starting to work on a new project right? What’s it about??”
Her mom took a sip of her water and smiled a little, thinking to herself before giving her answer. “We’re trying to develop a system that can diagnose people with mental illnesses online.”
“For real??” She raised her eyebrows in surprise and leaned forward with interest. “Hasn’t that been done before though?? And haven’t they been inaccurate everytime???”
She nodded, “It’s a big project and we’re taking our time with it. We haven’t started coding anything yet, just researching right now. Researching and getting medical professionals onboard with the project.”
“Do you need any help?? If you need it I can definitely do the talking.”
“Mmmm…” Jaya’s mom thought about it for a moment and shook her head, “Not right now. I’ll think about it while you’re on vacation, you don’t need to think about work until you come back.”
Before she could reply, her dad jokingly spoke up, “That doesn’t mean you should forget about work completely though.”
While Jaya just smiled and shook her head, her mom seemed less amused at this and gave him a look. “Do-Yun.”
Do-Yun looked back at her with an amused smile on his face and matched her energy. “Urmi. I’m just joking, don’t worry. Kind of.”
“Jaya deserves a break, there’s no need for her to worry about what happens here while she’s out of the country.”
“She is still in charge of a branch of the company, and it’s important she doesn’t forget about it even if she’s having fun.”
“She’s still so young, you do not have to constantly put this pressure on her.”
“Pressure? We both know Jaya is capable of handling this position, you need to stop coddling her.”
“Um--” This kind of thing happened pretty often between her parents, and normally she’d just let it go until both of them ran out of energy to argue further, but here? Really? “Aai, Appa, it-- it’s fine please don’t start this now. Obviously I’m not going to forget about work but I am very much able to enjoy things at the same time.”
Both of them looked at her and looked away, mutually deciding to drop it. Do-Yun looked through his phone, while Urmi went back to idly sipping her water and watching everyone else. The silence that came after got uncomfortable really quickly so Jaya resorted to going on her phone too. She was just scrolling through her Instagram and praying their food came soon.
Eventually their food came and the family started eating. Just as she’d hoped, the lack of conversation calmed both of them down and it finally felt like how it did when they first sat down. It took a few minutes of the family eating until her parents were finally ready to tell Jaya the news. “So, you remember your childhood friend, right? Uhhh…. Han Jumin.”
Jaya slowed down her eating in intrigue and nodded slowly, looking at her dad, then at her mom, and then at her dad again. “Yeah… we still talk. What about him?”
“For your birthday we were thinking of giving you a break from work and sending you to stay with him for a little while. It’s been a while since you’ve been in Korea and it would be a good opportunity to see your grandparents.”
She stopped eating completely and blinked a couple times, sitting up slowly. “Wait seriously?? You aren’t— You’re not fucking with me right now.”
“Language.”
“Sorry sorry. But you get what I mean.”
He nodded, and continued to eat as her mom took over for him. “Both of us are too busy at the moment so we can’t come with you, but that shouldn’t mean you have to stay back too. It’s already bad enough that we aren’t in contact with half of your grandparents, it’s better you stay in contact with who you have.”
Jaya nodded, putting her spoon down now. Obviously she was really excited just to get out of the country and see her grandparents but this seemed sketch… “Why wouldn’t I just stay with them then?? I mean— don’t get me wrong I’d love to see Jumin in person again but…”
Urmi looked over at him as well, as if she wanted to hear the answer to the question too. She had kind of a stern look on her face.
Do-Yun glanced at his wife once before looking back at Jaya and replied with what Jaya thought was the most frustrating thing ever. “You’ll see when you get there.”
She frowned, and watched as her mom shared her look of disappointment before going back to her food. Jaya sighed and gave her dad a pleading look, “Appa that’s not fair how am I supposed to go to a different country if you don’t explain everything???”
“It’s a part of your birthday gift, it wouldn’t make sense if I spoiled everything for you before it happens.” He watched as she sighed again and looked down at her food, “You should eat your food quickly, it’ll get cold.”
“Yeah yeah, I will…” Jaya went back to eating her food afterwards, and the family fell into what she wanted to be a comfortable silence. It wasn’t all that comfortable though, as she could feel the tension she saw between her parents through the window come back not even five minutes after the conversation was over. To avoid thinking more about it, Jaya started thinking about how excited she was about going to Korea and getting to see her grandparents and Jumin again.
She didn’t get that much information about this trip during the rest of the dinner, just that she had to start packing as soon as she could so her vacation could start sooner. Jaya couldn’t help but be a little dissapointed at the lack of information her dad was giving her as she watched her parents get back in their car. She waited for them to drive away before getting in her own vehicle and waited for the AC to warm up as she got her phone out. After diffusing the argument earlier Jaya hadn’t paid attention to it, so it was a nice surprise when she saw a birthday text from Jumin.
JH → JS: Happy birthday, Jaya.
JH → JS: I apologize for the late message, it’s been a busy morning.
Jaya grinned to herself and moved her seat back a little before pulling her legs up onto it, crossing them under herself.
JS → JH: hiii thank you!!!!
JS → JH: don’t even apologize you live across the planet
JS → JH: i was honestly kind of expecting you to send a late text if at all
JH → JS: Really?
JH → JS: It’s upsetting to know you think so little of me.
JS → JH: don’t even omg
JS → JH: i meant because you’re busy and you live like 15 hours ahead of me 😭
JS → JH: i know you aren’t cold enough to ghost me on my birthday 🙄 don’t worry
JH → JS: 😊
JS → JH: you text like my dad
JS → JH: anyways
JS → JH: do you know that i’m gonna be visiting soon??
JS → JH: like tomorrow soon i think, given how my dad was basically rushing me to pack
JH → JS: I do, my father told me this morning.
JH → JS: Once I’m done with my work I’ll get the guest bedroom ready for your arrival.
JS → JH: you knew about it before i did??? weird
JS → JH: also isn’t it weird that i’m staying with you instead of my grandparents
JS → JH: like i don’t know what your dad told you but my parents said it was basically a grandparent visit with other things added on so it doesn’t rly make any sense
JS → JH: my dad wouldn’t explain why either, he just said it was a part of my birthday surprise or whatever
JH → JS: I wasn’t given any details either, I was hoping you knew more about it.
JH → JS: I mean I’m not upset about the arrangement, it’ll be nice to see you again.
JH → JS: My father was hoping to meet with you at dinner after you settle in, so maybe he’ll tell us then.
JS → JH: damn :/ this better be something big then
JS → JH: maybe my dad wants me to expand the business here or smth
JS → JH: collabing with C&R would be pretty beneficial methinks
JH → JS: Do not call it collabing, that’s unprofessional.
JH → JS: But yes, our companies partnering with eachother would be very beneficial.
JH → JS: I hear you guys are trying to expand into the medical industry?
JS → JH: we are!! well my parents are
JS → JH: Dawn and Dusk are working on making medical things that are more accessible for people but Midnight is more focused on smaller stuff to get our foot in other industries as well as partnering with smaller companies so we have their support in the future
JH → JS: Sounds like you have your hands full.
JS → JH: kinda!! i don’t have to worry about the former thing bc we’ve only just gotten started on multiple projects but i am rly wearing out my charisma over here with the amount of business meetings i’ve had to attend
JS → JH: thankfully it hasn’t failed me yet 🙏 i’ve had maybe two companies turn the offer down but we are on good terms so!
JH → JS: That’s good. I remember being worried about how you’d do in this line of work after you told me you failed your speech class.
JS → JH: STOOOP i don’t even wanna think about it that was so embarrassing
JS → JH: i still hate public speaking but i really think that teacher was out to get me bc i did not do that bad
JH → JS: Of course.
JS → JH: WHAT DO YOU MEAN OF COURSE
JH → JS: I must get going now, my lunch is over.
JS → JH: DO YOU NOT BELIEVE ME?!??!?!?!
JH → JS: I apologize in advance if I’m not able to come pick you up myself, I’ll have Driver Kim waiting at the airport with a sign.
JS → JH: okay 😞 i gotta pack anyways and it’s almost 11
JS → JH: i’ll see you tomorrow then!!
JH → JS: See you tomorrow.
JS → JH: bye!!!!
With that, Jaya pulled her seat back to where it was before and started her drive home. This was going to be a busy night.