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“Dad, I’ll be going out tonight.” Chan announced his plan to Jihoon and sat right beside the older figure, who was very into polishing the dusts off from one of his Gundam collections.
Without taking his eyes off the inanimate object, Jihoon hummed, “who are you going out with? You got a date?”
“What?” A simple question that Chan endorsed in a casual manner.
“You know, it’s Saturday night,” he adjusted his glasses on the bridge of his nose and looked at Chan for a moment, just to read the boy’s expression. “Don’t you have any plans on dragging that single ass of yours out and get a girl?”
For some inexplainable reasons, Chan felt his heart picking up its beat, “nah, I don’t think I’m ready for a date just yet. You remember the last time I had one?” He played it cool.
“When did you even have a girl?” Jihoon put his Gundam figurine down and tilted his body towards Chan’s direction as he took his glasses off—a gesture that he does whenever he hears something unbelievable, although technically it makes no sense because now Jihoon couldn’t even see clearly.
Chan’s eyebrows rose up, his eyes widened a bit, “when I was in high school?! That one moment where I dated Yerim for like 2 months? Did you forget?”
Jihoon stilled as he stared at the ceiling, trying to remember this Yerim girl. Conveniently, Seungcheol’s footsteps could be heard from the stairs along with his faint humming of a jingle he heard from an ad, “Babe, do you remember Yerim?” Jihoon shouted from his spot.
“Channie’s ex-girlfriend?” Seungcheol shouted back from the kitchen without even diverting his eyes from what was inside the fridge, actively looking for something to munch on.
“You remember her?” Jihoon then shifted his gaze to Chan, who was silently & slowly shaking his head as his way of saying I can’t believe you forgot.
After grabbing a bottle of orange juice, Seungcheol walked towards the sofa where his husband and his son sat. He drank the beverage for a few gulps before responding, “yeah, kind of. She was a sweet girl. I don’t know why you broke up with her. Why are we talking about her anyway?”
“Because this old man right here asked me about dating. I just told him that I’m going out for tonight and that’s it, he proceeds to ask me whether I’ll be having a date or not just because it’s Saturday night and there it is, my ex mentioned!”
Jihoon pulled out his index finger, “I didn’t say that, I was just asking when will you stop being single and introduce us a girl.”
Chan scoffed, “that’s—that’s not even—dad, help me out here.” He lifted both of his hands up as a sign of defeat.
“I’m afraid I’m siding with your father this time, kiddo. How long has it been since you broke up with Yerim? It was like, 8 years ago, right? It’s time to get yourself in the game again.”
The kid groaned as he covers his face with both of his face. He made it seem like he was frustrated by the idea that both of his parents were ‘coercing’ him to go out and fetch a girl, but actually it was because of a completely different and unrelated reason. “Dads don’t you remember the reason why I broke up with Yerim?”
Jihoon and Seungcheol just stared at each other for a moment, then got back to Chan, shaking their heads in unison.
“I don’t have the skills of keeping someone around, you know. Also—" Chan shrugged. He was about to say more but got interrupted by a snapping sound from Seungcheol’s fingers.
“Oh! You broke up with her because during and after our Bali trip, you forgot you had a girlfriend!” Seungcheol shouted as if he just pushed the bell button in a Steve Harvey show.
Chan froze, he suddenly forgot what he was about to say, “…yeah, that one,” he said, in (another) defeat. “No but seriously, I’m just gonna go out with my friends tonight, I’ll be back before 10.”
“9.” Jihoon corrected.
“What am I, four?”
“Take it or leave it, kid.”
“Fine. I’ll be back at 9 tops,” Chan glanced up towards the clock that was mounted on the wall, positioned right above the TV. “I’m gonna shower now.”
“Hey, why don’t you take your friends here after your ‘playdate’ ends?” As Chan was lifting his butt up from his seat, Jihoon blurted out an idea—it got Seungcheol innocently nodded his head in agreement.
There’s a split-second silence before Chan responded, “I’ll… I’ll see about that later.” Now he had completely taken off to the bathroom upstairs.
Back to the figurine he had to ignore earlier, Jihoon picked it up to place it back into the cupboard, “I bet you 10 dollars that kid is an ace.”
“What do you mean betting me 10 bucks? He’s already an ace. So proud of him.” Seungcheol absentmindedly responded while gulping down some more of his orange juice.
Jihoon glared at Seungcheol from where he was standing, “I meant ace as in asexual.”
Seungcheol almost choked on his orange juice. Although having a queer son might not come as a surprise for him—mind you, he himself has been in a gay marriage for 20 years—but it never occurred to him that Chan could be a queer, especially with Yerim (and Chaeyoung but Chan kept her from his parents, he was 12 when they dated) being in the list of Chan’s past love interest. “What makes you think so?”
“I don’t know, just a hunch.”
“Huh,” Seungcheol mind gnawed on it, “well, I bet you 20 he’s bi.”
Chan went out to meet his friends whom he met from the internet, Seungkwan and Hansol. He never told his parents that he actually met them from a social media platform—heck, he never mentioned their names, and both Seungcheol and Jihoon never bothered to interrogate Chan; they just sort of trusted Chan that he could take a good care of himself and that he’s smart enough to keep himself out from harm’s ways.
During the conversations that evening, Hansol prompted a question: do any of your parents know that you’re queer?
Seungkwan took the liberty of answering first, saying that he had come out to his parents years ago. He told them when he was in his pre-teen days. He testified that at first, they dismissed him, saying that he still had a long way to go and that he should ‘rethink his decisions’. “But then I went to my big sis, you know, in hopes that she’d understand. She did, eventually. She backed me up when I came out for the second time to my parents that I’m bisexual.” He said.
“That’s good for you,” Hansol responded calmly with a proud smile plastered across his face, “well in my case, my mom and dad kind of understood right away, they didn’t ask me lots of things. How about you, Chan? Do your dads know?”
Chan could only smile, “I don’t know, to be honest. I mean, at this point, I do lots of phone calls with Wonwoo hyung and judging from how thin my bedroom walls are, it’s impossible that they at least didn’t hear a glimpse of us conversing. But I’m too afraid of making sure of it.”
“What, why though? I mean, your parents are queer and isn’t that a start?” Seungkwan asked, there was a genuine confusion inside the tone he was using.
“Will you believe me if I said there has never been a day where it occurred to me that I have to come out to them? Yeah. Besides, come on, I met Wonwoo hyung from goddamn Twitter. I only saw like, what, parts of his face!”
“So?!” Seungkwan added.
“So… isn’t that thing taboo for people around my dads’ age? I don’t know, I just don’t have the energy to defend why I’m madly in love with Wonwoo hyung anytime sooner.”
There was a silence between them. It lasted for a few seconds before Hansol broke it, “Chan, do you want a piece of my thoughts?”
“Shoot.” Chan responded.
“I personally think you shouldn’t elaborate the details just yet. At least not until you’re ready.”
“What do you mean?” Chan leaned his body closer to Hansol as he crossed his arms atop the table of the café they were at.
“I mean, judging from what you said, you are doubtful because you presume your dads are going to ask you how did you discover your sexuality, yes?”
Chan nodded, eyes wide like a curious kid.
“Well, don’t elaborate it. Just tell them the bigger picture if they ever ask you that.”
Seungkwan nodded in agreement, “that actually makes sense, yeah. You don’t have to, like, bare all of your cards out on the table especially when you don’t feel like it.”
The topic ended with Chan agreeing and that he would consider telling his dads. Besides, he was indeed lucky to have a good start with having queer parents—at least that would eliminate lots of consequences.
As he promised to Jihoon, Chan made it back home just a few minutes before 9. He chimed a greeting to announce his presence in the house, in which it was responded by Seungcheol, who was comfortably snuggled under the throws on the couch.
“Hey dad.” He greeted him, instantly clinging onto his father once he had placed his bag and jacket somewhere on the floor.
“Hey, kiddo. How was your evening?” There was a hint of sleepiness in Seungcheol’s voice. Probably the aftermath of watching a stale-plotted movie from the TV.
“It was okay, I had a good day,” both of them grew silent for a moment before Jihoon stepped into the living room.
“Hey, champ. You made it back before 9. Did you have a good day?” Jihoon said as he was putting a few dirty dishes on the sink. The sound of water trickling from the tap added more white noise to the entire room.
“I did, thanks for asking,” Chan stood up and stilled awkwardly, he put his hands together like a polite otter, “dads, I want to come out.”
At a blink of an eye, both of the parents had their eyes glued on Chan; Jihoon stepped closer although his hands down to his elbows were wet, Seungcheol who was bleary eyed, now wide awake, anticipating for the next words.
“I’m an asexual, and uh, romantically speaking I like boys and girls.”
The silence that lingered between them was something that Chan expected, something he didn't prefer. Without moving from his spot, he tapped his right toe impatiently whilst trying to regulate his heartbeat.
“Wait, so are you an ace or bi?” Seungcheol asked.
“…both?”
“Sexually?” Jihoon asked.
“I’ve told you, ace!”
Another silence but this time, Jihoon smiled in victory and walked his way towards Seungcheol, handing out his hand after he dried it out.
“We didn’t even establish whether we’re betting on his sexual orientation or his romantic preference.”
“WAIT, YOU WERE BETTING ON IT?” Chan shouted in disbelief; eyes wide.
“Admit it, Cheol. We were talking about his sexuality. He said so himself he’s an ace. Gimme me 20.”
“I can’t believe this…” Seungcheol sighed in defeat as he reached for two $10 bills from his pocket.
“No offense, kid, we smelled your fruity scent already.” Jihoon added and snickered right away.
“Wha—damn you both. I was so worried to death that you’d interrogate me until I cry and quiver. Turned out you were betting?!”
“That’s right. But hey, we love you unconditionally and you have our full support, yeah?” After he got his money, Jihoon stepped towards Chan to hug him, “really. Thank you for coming out to us. So, when are you going to introduce your hyung to us?”
“YOU HEARD?!”
“Oh, we heard, kid. We heard.” Jihoon and Seungcheol responded in perfect unison.