Stay With Us

I decided to just go and get a hotel for the night. I didn’t want to be around anyone right now. I didn’t mean to yell at my parents but I wanted to take some time to calm down before trying to talk to them. I sat in my hotel room turning on the TV to distract myself.

I realized after a couple hours I had left my phone at home. I thought about going back but decided against it. I didn’t need it.

After a while I did decide that I needed to talk to someone about what was going on. I got the piece of paper with Matthew’s phone number on it calling with the hotel phone.

“Hello?” He answered quickly.

“Hi Matthew. It’s Maranda.” I say not sure how to introduce myself.

“Oh! Hi. What can I do for you?” He asks sounding nervous. I don’t think he knew really what to say either.

“I was wondering if you could meet me somewhere so we could talk.” I ask him. “There is a really good Spanish restaurant on 327th St.”

“Yeah. You want to meet there in about thirty minutes?”

“That works. See you there.” I say hanging up the phone.

Jimin’s POV

I couldn’t believe how upset Maranda had gotten. She had never yelled at me let alone screamed like that. And the way she was talking to her parents was just as surprising. After about an hour I tried calling her to check that she was alright but then found out she left her phone.

“I’m sure she is fine.” Jin says walking in with snacks for everyone. “She just needed to blow off some steam. She’ll call us from somewhere or come back.”

“We said the same thing about V.” I remind him.

“Yeah. And he was on his way back when you and Maranda left the next day.” He says. “Just give her some time. A lot has been thrown at her at once.”

After another hour Rebecca’s phone start to go off. “Hello?” She answers quickly. “Hi Matthew. You have?” She says excitedly. “No she left pretty upset and left her phone here. Ok. Well thank you.” She then turns to the rest of us. “He said she called him from a hotel. She asked if they could go to dinner.”

“Well that’s some progress.” Mr. Kim said putting his arm around her.

Maranda’s POV

I get up grabbing my purse then leaving my room. He was there before I was already sitting at a table. I walk over sitting down.

“I’m sorry all of this has been sprung on you.” He says.

“I just want to try to understand some of this.” I say nervously.

“What do you want me to answer? I will the best I can.” He says reassuringly.

I think over where to start. “The biggest question I have, is why she didn’t tell you about me and why she left.”

He looks down at the table seeming embarrassed. “When I was younger I didn’t always make the best decisions.” He starts. “Your mom and I met at a Deep Purple concert. I was with a few friends of mine drinking and smoking weed in the parking lot after and her along with a couple of her friends came up to us. She didn’t really seem like she wanted to be there but was dragged by them. I don’t know if it was because I was different from the guys she normally hung around with or what it was but we hit it off.” He then says laughing. “We got into a lot of trouble together. Your grandparents were not a fan of me. We ended up taking off after about four months of being together. We were living out of my van for a couple years just going all over the states. We had discussed traveling the whole world together. Then everything changed.” He says breathing deeply. “She wanted to pick somewhere to stay. Do the family thing. I didn’t want to. I didn’t see what was wrong with how we were living. We didn’t have walls holding us in we could do whatever we wanted to. We got into a huge fight about it. I went to bed that night and then the next morning she was gone.” He then gets out his wallet pulling out a piece of paper. “This was all that was left.” He looks at it longingly before handing it to me.

I open it seeing my mom’s handwriting. “Matsy, I’m sorry I am being too chicken to tell you this. But I can’t do this anymore. We haven’t grown apart and nothing has changed between us. I just know that you will be happier doing your thing than what I want to do. I will always love you, Becs.”

He then clears his throat. “I searched for her for months and couldn’t track her down. I called friends of ours and nothing. I finally went to her parents hoping they knew. They told me she left to South Korea and that if I really loved her I would let her stay there.” I then see a small tear fall from his eye. “I still regret not going to get her back. If she would have told me you were the reason she wanted to pick somewhere to settle down I would have. And she knew that. That’s why she didn’t tell me. She thought I wouldn’t be happy but would do it because I felt I had too.” I hand him back the note. He puts it back into his wallet then looks up at me. “That is why she didn’t tell me about you.”

I nod my head at him looking down. It was not the reason I was expecting. I was secretly hoping he was a bad person. But neither of them were much older than me when it happened. I knew about some of mom’s gypsy days but I didn’t know it was with him.

“I know you said you didn’t want to ruin what I had after you found out about me. But why did you think you would?” I ask looking back at him.

“I didn’t know how to be a father.” He stated matter of fact. “I never got married, had kids, none of that. When I saw you that day at the doctor’s office with them, you were so happy. You had a dad. You didn’t need me.” He says shaking his head. “I would have made you question what you had with him. And he didn’t deserve that. He was and still is your dad. He may not have made you, but he raised you and for that I will always be grateful. Because you have turned into a beautiful person.”

He then gets a small smile on his face.

“After I found out about you. Your mom would send me different things about you to keep me updated. I have your 6th grade dance recital on DVD. All of your birthdays, pageants, prom pictures, audition tapes, everything. She even sent me pictures of your dog Jimin got you.”
He says laughing. “I may not have been there. But I do care about you. If I would have thought in the slightest you would have been happier with me, then I would have fought for you. But you didn’t need me.”

I noticed a tear fall from my face quickly wiping it away. “Why did you decide to find me here when you got sick when you could have just given everything to my mom?”

“I was being selfish. I wanted to actually meet you. I didn’t mean to stalk you, I just wanted to see you happy one more time.” He then gets a rather large smile which reminded me of mine. “And I can see how happy that boy makes you. You both look at each other the way your mom and I used to. Just promise me one thing.” He then says nervously. “That no matter what happens between you two, you figure it out. Because he really loves you.” He then laughs again. “And I could tell that before he was ready to kick my ass at the bus stop.”

I couldn’t help but laugh at that too. “He gets protective.” I say rolling my eyes.

“That’s not a bad thing.” He says shaking his head.

We finish dinner and he walked me back to the hotel I was staying at for the night.

“Why don’t you go home?” He says before I walk in.

I then get a guilty look on my face. “I kind of made a scene back at the house.” I admit. “I was upset so I went for a run. When I got back to the house Mom and Appa were sitting on the couch waiting for me. I snapped at them about not telling me anything and then at Jimin about the dog.”

“They aren’t mad at you. They know why you are upset.”

“I know. I just want to make sure I don’t do or say anything I will regret later. I’m going home first thing in the morning.” I say reassuringly.

“Well, then have a good night.” He says turning around leaving.

I went to sleep as soon as I got up to the room. It was weird not having Jimin next to me but I didn’t want to go home yet.

I woke up the next morning to the alarm I set to go back home. I got dressed going to the front desk to check out. I walk up to the door of the house hesitating before opening it. Begae looks up seeing me then comes over excitedly wagging his tail. I then notice Jimin asleep on the couch.

I walk over laying on top of him wrapping my arms around him. I put my head on his chest listening to his heartbeat and his breathing. He noticed me there in his sleep wrapping his arms around me tightly. I continued to just lay there with him until he wakes up.

“Hey.” I hear him groggily say holding me tighter.

“Hey.” I say kissing his chest then looking up at him. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s ok. You were upset.”

“I still shouldn’t have screamed at you. You didn’t do anything.” I then remember we are on the couch. “Why are you out here?”

“I was waiting for you to come back.” He then kisses the top of my head. “Your parents are at their hotel.”

“I don’t know if I want to talk to my mom yet.” I tell him. “I found out why she left without telling him. I don’t know if I agree with it.”

“What do you mean?” He asks worried.

“She knew about me before she left him. And the reason she did was because she thought she would be foresing him to do something he didn’t want to do. She didn’t give him the chance to make his own decision.”

“Don’t be mad at her for that though. I’m sure she thought it was the right thing to do at the time.”

“She left in the middle of the night leaving him a note to find the next morning. How is that the right thing to do?” I asked upset looking up at him. “He still had the note in his wallet. I read it. She didn’t give him a real reason.”

He looks down at me shocked. “Maranda you don’t even know him. How can you be taking his side on something that happened twenty years ago?”

I then get off him sitting on the other end of the couch. “That ‘something’ that happened twenty years ago Jimin was me.” I say pointing at myself. “And how can you take her side just because she is my mom?”

“That isn’t what I meant.” He says sitting up.

“Well that is what you said.” I return at him upset.

“What is with you?” He asks getting upset himself. “I know that you have had a lot thrown at you but you’re getting mad at me for nothing again. You know I didn’t mean it the way it sounded. I don’t want to fight with you. I want to help you get through this and not be mad at anyone in the situation.”

“Well I don’t want your help.” I say storming off to the bathroom to take a shower. I was still in the clothes from my run yesterday and started to feel gross in them.

Jimin’s POV

I leaned back on the couch trying to calm down. This isn’t her. She is just upset right now because it’s all hitting her at once. Just stay calm. She’ll be back to normal soon.

I then hear someone walk into the room. I turn expecting to see Maranda but it was V.

“Hey.” I say sighing to him.

“You alright?” He asked sitting next to me.

“Yeah. I’m good. She is just stressing about this and letting it out.”

“Yeah I know.” He says leaning on his knees. “You want me to talk to her?”

“No. Just let her get it out. Even if it’s at me.”

“She shouldn’t take it out on you though. You didn’t do anything but support her with all of this.”

“I know. But we were the end reason she went to meet him.” I say looking over at him. “We wanted to tell him to back off her and ended up finding out he was her dad. I’m not dragging you down with me. I just know I am part of the reason she is upset right now.”

“Yeah, you’re right. But we can’t beat ourselves up about this. We did it and it’s done with.”

“I’m just going to try to focus on her feeling better.” I say putting my head back.

Maranda’s POV

I get out of the shower going to our room to put on clothes. I see Jimin lounging on the bed scrolling on his phone. He glances up seeing me then putting his phone down.

I ignore him as I put the towel into the hamper picking out clothes. I heard him get off the bed then walk over to me. He puts his arms around my waist pulling me into him kissing my neck.

“Jimin stop.” I say pushing him off.

He gives me a confused look. “What?”

“I don’t want to have sex right now.” I say going back through my clothes getting dressed.

He doesn’t say anything leaving the room.

Notes