"What are you doing in the kitchen again?" Bonita asked as she turned from the pot on the stove to see Minho coming to peer over her shoulder after having changed his shirt for the fifth time in the last half hour.

"Wanted to see if I could help," he said before pulling back, tugging at the collar of the blue polo shirt he wore. "Is it hot in here?"

Turning to let the food simmer, Bonita saw that Minho's face was slightly flushed, small pit stains under his arms. Grabbing him by an arm, she directed him to take a seat at the table.

"You're just panicking," Bonita said as she walked off to grab him a glass of water before returning to set it before him. "Just breathe. It's going to be fine."

"I don't know why I'm panicking," Minho said as he reached for the glass. "It's not like I care."

"If you didn't care, you wouldn't have gotten so worked up at the hospital," Bonita said as she moved to stroke her fingers through his hair from behind as he sipped the water. "Just tell yourself it'll only be for a few hours and then it's done."

"Yeah, but it'll be a few hours in purgatory," Minho muttered as he put the glass down, Mittens choosing that moment to rub up against the side of his leg from under the table. "I said 'purgatory', not 'purr-gatory', Mittens."

Chuckling Bonita left Minho at the table to go check on the food again. Once Seungmin and Hyunjin came to take their turn to watch Bang Chan, her and Minho had left to go to his place to get ready for his parent's arrival. Bonita had changed into an outfit she had left in a bag there before trying to cook them all a meal. Lifting the lid of the pot on the burner, she sighed.

"Do you think they're going to notice if we order takeout?" she asked.

Just then, a knock came at the door. A groan fell from Minho's lips as he looked at the clock on the wall.

"That can't be them. It's not time yet," Minho said as Bonita walked towards the door.

Peeking through the peephole, she chuckled as she moved to open it.

"It's not your parents, don't worry," Bonita said. "It's just I.N and Felix."

"What are they doing here?" Minho asked as Bonita shrugged, opening the door to look at the two of them standing on the steps.

"We came baring leftover food to eat while we do the the final script read before the presentation tomorrow," Felix said before noticing the apron that Bonita had on. "Is something going on?"

"His parents' are coming over," Bonita said, "but you both are actually lifesavers."

"We are?" Felix asked.

"Yes, you really are. Can we borrow the food? I kind of burnt the supper."

"Yeah, that's fine," I.N said. "I'm sorry. We didn't realize this was going on tonight."

"It's not your fault. With everything going on, we forgot to...shoot."

"You forgot to shoot?" Felix asked, looking confused right before Bonita grabbed I.N and Felix both by the collar and brought them inside.

"No...no, his parents are here. I see the car."

Another groan from Minho could be heard as Bonita quickly ushered I.N and Felix into Minho's spare room.

"Please stay here until they are gone."

"But..."

Bonita cut off Felix's protest attempt as she firmly shut the spare bedroom door behind her after taking the leftover food from him, walking over to stand by the table as Minho got up to answer the door.

"Good evening, Minho."

"Evening," he said in response to his father's greeting, standing aside so they could enter.

'Here we go,' thought Bonita as she watched Minho's parents enter the apartment and go over to the table she had helped set up earlier.

Two Eternity-Feeling Hours Later

"Jeongin, do you think they're almost done?"

"Why?"

"I have to go."

Jeongin was already on edge about being away from Bang Chan too long and had felt like their time in the spare room was never ending, but Felix suddenly piping up that he had to go was definitely not making the situation any better.

"I don't know any more than you do, Felix," I.N whispered as he stood up, walking over to the door and opening it just enough to peek out through a crack.

From where the bedroom was situated, it was hard for him to see the table they were all seated at. All he could see was a straight shot to the kitchen and — a little past that — the bathroom door.

"How bad is it?" asked I.N.

"Bad."

"Well, I guess there's only one thing left to do."

- - -

"So she's your girlfriend?"

"Yes," Minho said as he poked at his food. He was pretty sure at this point his meal was so skewered that it wasn't even recognizable as food anymore.

Minho knew that things would be awkward with his parents as they never had dinners together. They didn't know the first thing about him, so he figured getting the conversation started was going to be the most difficult part. However, the longer the dinner wore on, the more it was shaping up to be that the most difficult part was getting their head wrapped around the fact that Bonita was his girlfriend. He could tell that his parents' incessant curiosity about her was starting to make her feel uncomfortable which made him agitated, hence the food stabbing.

"I don't know how many times you're going to ask if she's my girlfriend, but my answer isn't going to change," Minho added as he looked up from his plate.

His parents were seated with their backs to the kitchen. As he fixed them with a look, he couldn't help but to notice something shift in the kitchen. At first he figured it must just be Mittens since he hadn't seen his cat since his parents arrived, but when he focused on it for a moment longer, he noticed that it was none other than I.N and Felix sneaking through the kitchen as if they were ninjas on a mission.

'What are those two idiots doing?' thought Minho.

His father seemed to notice that Minho was staring too long at something and was about to half turn in his seat to see what it was when Minho panicked. He was already worried his parents were going to scare Bonita away. He certainly didn't want them possibly scaring away the friends he had made too.

"I don't get why either of you bothered coming over tonight if we're just going to keep having these circular conversations," Minho said, capturing his parent's attention. "I agreed to this dinner so you can start to get to know me. I'm not looking for or needing your approval for anything. To be honest and blunt about it, I don't really care what you think about my choices."

Coming to a pause for a second, he saw that I.N and Felix had made it to the bathroom and Felix had just quickly disappeared behind the door.

"I.N!" called out Minho, causing I.N to turn and face him with a sheepish look on his face. "Come say hi to my parents."

Both of his parents turned to watch I.N come out of the shadows of the kitchen and over to the table. Minho was already standing up from his seat so that I.N would have somewhere to sit down.

"Let me go get you a plate. There is still plenty to eat."

Minho disappeared into the kitchen after forcing I.N down into his seat. I.N was about to open his mouth to voice his opinion about the situation when Bonita reached over to grab his hand under the table. When I.N turned his head to lock eyes with Bonita, he saw her silent plea for help.

'Man this has to be going south,' thought I.N as he turned his attention back to face Minho's parents.

"I.N..." Minho's mother mused. "That name sounds familiar."

"He's a writer," Minho said as he re-entered with a plate.

"A writer?"

"Yes, but I just wrote one television show."

"Don't say it like that, I.N," Bonita said as Minho directed a very surprised Felix towards the table with his hands on his shoulders. "Your show was my favorite one."

As Felix was forced to sit down at the table followed by Minho, the four of them started to fill Minho's parents in on I.N's show Bubble. Minho was surprised to see that his parents were generally interested, even going so far as to let I.N and Bonita give a mock presentation to them ahead of the real one tomorrow.

By the time dinner was done and Minho was walking his parents back over to the front door, he felt much better about the evening. His parents paused outside the apartment door as they looked at him.

"I know that I speak for your father too when I say that we're happy to see you're happy," his mother said. "We're sorry we kept asking repetitive questions. It's just..."

"It's just going to take time," Minho filled in, letting out a sigh. "I know."

As they bid each other goodnight, he watched them get back into his car. Bonita came up behind him, looking over his shoulder as his parents drove off.

"Well at least the evening ended well," Bonita said. "I just hope they will come to accept me eventually."

"Even if they don't, they won't ever change my mind, you know," Minho stated as he turned to look at her.

"Ever huh?"

"Uh huh," he said with a small grin on his face, cupping her face in his hands. "I've been without you for too long."

"I feel like this might be our cue to go," Felix leaned over to whisper in I.N's ear as they both sat at the table and watched Bonita and Minho share a loving kiss as if the two of them weren't even there.