Page 50 of The Secret Of Us

Ravi

Great, you still owe me a game

Noah

I think you enjoy losing to me

Ravi

I said it before

Fighting words Park

Before I can reply to him there’s a pounding on my door that has me jumping out of my skin. I push to my feet, hurrying to open the door for whatever emergency is happening.

“Oppa, you have a girlfriend?!”

I slam the door in Mina’s face.

The knocking starts again as I pace back and forth in my room. I don’t know why it never crossed my mind that Mina would end up finding out. I grab my phone from where I dropped it on my bed and open up my messages.

Eomma

You have a girlfriend?

What does she look like?

Does she like Korean food?

Appa

Adeul, call me

Of course, Mina’s told them. I groan in frustration, trying to figure out how I can approach all three of them with this without giving too much away.

I can’t tell them it’s fake because Mina doesn’t know how to keep a secret to save her life. But if I tell them it’s real, then what if they want to meet her? I can’t drag Izzy into anything like that when this arrangement was meant to be simple.

The knocking starts again, and this time, when I open the door, Mina shoves her phone into my face. Both of my parents stare back at me. Eomma is smiling, but Appa’s face is stern. It takes me back to a few months ago when I had to leave school. I focus on Eomma’s face instead.

“Mina tells us you have a girlfriend,” Eomma starts. I glare at Mina—who is much happier about this than she should be—before looking back at my parents.

“I…” When I see the hopeful glint in my mum’s eyes, I can’t tell her the truth. “It’s true.”

Eomma claps her hands together, a smile lighting up her face.

“Finally! This is great! Why didn’t you tell us sooner?”

“It’s new,” I say. “We’ve only been going out for a few weeks.”

“The whole school knows,” Mina says, directing the phone back at herself. I slide my finger across my throat in a silent threat to her, but she just rolls her eyes. I listen as she recounts everything she seems to have heard about me and Izzy since we started our fake relationship.

Eomma is happier than I expected, asking more and more questions, but then Appa speaks for the first time.

“Adeul.” Mina passes the phone to me and I take it from her, finally looking at my father again. “I’m glad you’re making friends, but are you sure this is the right thing to do?”

I wish I could explain to him that itis, that it’s probably the best thing I’m going to do while I’m here. But I can’t say that without giving the whole thing away.

“I didn’t think it would happen. We share a lot of the same classes and we got closer as time passed.” It’s not a complete lie.

---