Description: You ask Chan to pose as your boyfriend in front of your parents for the holidays. Little did you know how he will legitimately be working for your parents’ approval.
Warning: cliche-ish fluff, not edited
Word Count: 2344
Pairing: fem!reader x Bang Chan
Merry Christmas!
“Would you be my boyfriend?”
Chan lifts his head from his computer to look at you but left his jaw on the table. “W-what?” he sputters.
“It’s just pretend; I need to take someone home for Christmas to fool my family. You aren’t going home this year, right?”
“Well, no, but--”
You purse your lips into a small pout and blink rapidly thrice, sending heat rushing to the male’s ears. He pulls his beanie down to hide the reddening tips.
“There’s a hot spring and free board and food. Just think of it as a free vacation! Please? You’re the only one I can ask.”
You bite your lip nervously, afraid he’d shun you for your weird request. Little did you know the real cause of his hesitance.
Inside Chan’s head is total chaos. Error messages are popping up everywhere, and he cannot figure out if he is even breathing. Will your family like him? Will you say his name and the word “boyfriend” in the same sentence? Will he get to hold hands with you???
His imagination spreads the heat from his ears to his cheeks, so he turns away before he could embarrass himself. “F-fine,” he mutters. “But you owe me one.”
You light up like a Christmas tree. “Of course! Anything! Thank you so much, Chan!” You toss your arms around his neck in what he hopes to be the first of many hugs before prancing away.
“Let’s run through our story again.”
Chan bets the taxi driver can recite the story himself but humors you anyway. “I am a music producer and you work as an office lady at the same company. We’ve been together for five months and counting.”
“And?” you press.
“And you are by no means an actress because actresses cannot be dating, hence why you asked me to pose as your boyfriend.”
You let out a relieved smile. “Perfect. Thanks, Chan. You know, you’d actually make an ideal boyfriend someday.”
Chan chokes on his saliva while you gasp at the window.
“We’re here!” you announce excitedly.
The driver pulls into your family’s cottage. Fresh country air greets the two of you as you step onto the snow-dusted ground.
“Unnie!” shouts a child running toward you with outstretched hands.
“Mimi!” you giggle in a childish voice while bending down to scoop her up into your arms. Turning to Chan, you introduce the two. “Chan, this is Miyeon, my little sister. You can call her Mimi if you want. Mimi, this is Channie-oppa. Say hello!”
The child waves with a gummy smile. “Hello!”
Chan smiles and waves back, trying to push back his fantasies of his child in your arms like Mimi is.
You set Mimi down. “Okay, let’s go inside and see Mommy and Grandma.”
The girl’s eyes widen at the mention of the two older women. “Mommy and Grandma made really yummy Christmas cake!”
“Really? Then let’s hurry!”
Mimi nods enthusiastically and waddle as quickly as her seven year old feet can take her into the inn. You draw in a sharp breath as you straighten back up to face Chan.
“Ready?”
“One second.” He takes off his right glove, a move you thought was crazy in this weather until he slips his hand into your mitten.
You open your mouth as if to say “Ah” impressedily. Chan shifts his scarf over his reddening nose and mutters, “Let’s not keep them waiting.”
Your mother greets Chan with a hug and a few light hearted threats to treat you well, your grandmother stuffs a bun into his mouth before Chan could even greet her, and your father gives him a handshake and a squeeze on his shoulder.
“And that’s it! You made it through meeting everyone!” You tell him, dragging him outside by his hand still.
“Do you think they liked me?” he asks worriedly.
You raise a brow. “I’m sure they did, but that’s not what the goal of this trip.”
“I know, but I kinda still wanted to impress them…” he mumbles uncertainly to himself.
“Chan,” you begin, grabbing his other wrist as well so that he faces you. “You always impress; me, Stays, our company-- we’re always impressed by you, so my family is no exception. Don’t worry, alright? In fact, I should ask you to try not to impress them or you’ll break their hearts after these two days.”
Just as your sweet words begin filling his heart with warmth, you take your hands from his, leaving him with the cold of your absence. He watches as you habitually straighten up the area a bit. There is no one around, so of course you don’t have to keep holding his hand anymore. After all, this is all pretend. Pretend. Chan grits his teeth at the word and walks towards you.
You see him approaching and ask, “Is there anything you want to do? To eat? You are the guest after all.”
He shakes his head and grabs a nearby broom. “I’ll do whatever you want to do. Do you have to clean this area?”
“No, but it might be nice to help them out a bit since my parents’ backs are advancing in age. Are you sure you want to do this though? I did promise you a vacation to compensate for being my boyfriend; you could check out the fair the nearby town is holding.”
“Then let’s finish this quickly and go together, yeah?”
You give him a heart-stopping smile. “That’ll be great. Thanks, Chan.”
“And Y/N?”
“Mmh?”
“You don’t ever need to compensate me anything for being your boyfriend.”
Chan makes a mental note to take his boys here next year as he follows you, your parents, and your sister into the town fair.
“You guys sure take Christmas seriously around here,” he breaths.
“We sure do, Son,” laughs your father, clapping Chan on the back. “I still can’t believe you cleaned out that deck for us! Tell you what, everything you want to eat is on me tonight.”
You giggle at how smitten your father has become after Chan did something your mother had apparently been nagging your father to do for the past month, while Chan politely waves both his hands in front of him to decline the offer.
“I can’t possibly accept that, Sir. Besides, I only desire the accompaniment of your daughter.”
Your mother lets out an amused scoff, and this time, it is your turn to feel heat rising up your body. You did not expect him to play the role this well, so you hide behind your mother, afraid of starting to believe in his words.
Chan, unaware of the impact of his words, stands dumbfounded as your father lets out a hearty laugh.
“Alright then. I’ll leave you two to it; just get her back to the inn by midnight, understood?”
“Yes, sir!”
Your parents reach for Mimi’s hands to leave the two of you alone, but the young girl seems to have other plans.
“But I wanna play with Unnie and Oppa!” she wines.
“You can’t,” chides your mother. “Unnie is on a date right now, okay?”
“What’s a date?” she pouts.
Before anyone can answer, Chan interjects, “She can stay with us.”
Your mother blinks. “Are you sure?”
Chan nods. “I know Y/N wants to spend some time with her sister too, and I don’t mind either.”
Your parents hand Mimi off to you gratefully. “Thank you for doing this, Chan. We’ll call Y/N at nine to take her back, but until then, I’ll count out you.”
When they were gone, you turn to Chan with a knowing smirk. “Perfect son-in-law much?”
He rubs the back of his head. “I dunno. I don’t think your mother is ready to hand you off to me quite yet.”
“Why are you so worried about it?”
“What is Oppa worried about?” interrupts Mimi.
You and Chan exchange looks, wondering if the seven year-old caught on. Chan then crouches to her level. “Oppa is worried Mommy doesn’t like Oppa enough, but Unnie thinks she likes him just fine.”
Mimi cocks her head to the side as if thinking. “Well, Mimi likes Oppa!”
Chan lets out a chuckle and swings her onto his shoulders. “Thanks, Mimi. Oppa likes Mimi too.”
“Does Oppa like Unnie?”
You hold your breath for a reason unknown to even yourself. Even though you know how he will answer, you can’t help but want to hear it.
Chan pauses for a moment then locks his eyes on yours before answering. “Yes, Oppa likes Unnie. Channie-oppa likes her very, very much.”
“I hope she wasn’t any trouble.”
“No, not at all,” Chan reassures. “Mimi, did you have fun today?”
“Yes,” she replies with a yawn.
“Well, seems like someone is ready for bed,” comments your father. “You kids have fun!”
With that, your parents return home while Chan takes you strolling through the aisles of stands.
“What do you want to do now?”
You shrug. “I don’t know. I mean, we’ve already done most everything with Mimi.”
He ponders for a moment then suggests, “How about a picture for you Instagram?”
“Sure,” you agree, latching onto a gigantic LED ornament. “How’s this?”
“Perfect,” he says while taking your phone to take the picture for you.
When he hands it back, you see that he has already posted it with a caption.
“‘Which one is brighter?’” you read.
He reaches over and zooms into your face. “This one.”
You roll your eyes humorously. “Stop, no one’s here anymore.”
“You… you don’t like it?”
“Well, I--I just don’t know what to do when you say stuff like that cause I’m not used to it, and I don’t know how to feel since--”
He cuts off your rambling by boldly draping his scarf around you and pulling you closer. “I’m supposed to be your boyfriend for two days; relax and let me be just that, okay?”
You don’t say anything and instead snuggle your scarlet face into the scarf. The two of you stay conjoined at the hip, convincing each other that diets are for tomorrow and Christmas cookies are for today, until the stands themselves start closing down. Chan checks his watch and decides it is time to head back.
“So, what do you want for Christmas?” you ask on your fifteen minute trip back home.
Chan chuckles, swinging your hand in his. “I think I already got what I wished for.”
You breath a puff of smoke into the cold air. “I get what you mean. I guess there’s so much to be grateful for that it’s hard to ask for more. But honestly, what do you want? I did promise you a favor after all.”
“You’ll seriously get what I request?” He raises a dangerous eyebrow.
“I mean, unless it’s something like a private cruise line or something, sure.”
“It’s not a cruise line.”
“Then what is it?”
“This.” He pulls on your hand, causing you to trip and fall into his arms, and presses a kiss against your head. He helps you straighten back up and you clasp your hands over the spot he kissed.
“C-chan?”
“AAARGGH!” he screams, burying his face into his gloves. Despite his efforts, he cannot hide the fact that he is glowing like Rudoph’s nose. “That was so cringey! I’m sorry, Y/N. Please forget that and just run inside before I miss your curfew.”
“Chan…”
He screams again to cut you off while crouching down to sandwich his head between his knees. “I’m sorry, I seriously can’t face you right now. On another note, your dad’s going to kill me if you don’t make it inside within the next minute.”
“Alright, alright,” you laugh. “I’ll see you tomorrow then. Merry Christmas!”
Chan comes out of his shell as you race indoors. A soft smile spreads across his lips as he watches your retreating form.
“Merry Christmas, Y/N…”
You and Chan loads the last of your luggage into the trunk when your mother calls for the man.
He turns to you. “I’ll be right back.”
You nod and he heads towards your mother.
“Hello, Chan,” she greets. “Did you enjoy your stay?”
“Yes, Mrs. L/N. Thank you for having me.” Chan feels every one of his muscles contracting under your mother’s gaze. He knows the woman has been judging him since she first laid eyes on him. Though she has been a spectacular host, he knows she’d boot him into the snow at any sign of mistreatment to her daughter.
“My Y/N, how do you feel about her, Chan?”
“She’s my everything, of course.”
“Really though?”
Chan gulps but nods steadfastly nonetheless.
“I’ll cut to the chase,” she sighs. “Y/N… I know you’re not dating her.”
Chan draws in a sharp breath. Bullets of sweat pop from his scalp.
“I know what she actually does for a living. I am her mother after all; she can’t lie to me. But now that she is so happy doing what she does, I feel guilty for ever holding her back. And I can tell you make her happy too. Although that dense girl might not notice it yet, but I know how you look at her, and I’ve seen how she smiles when your with her. This whole trip might have been a facade, but those smiles-- those smiles were real. So what I’m saying is--” she pauses as if to double check her decision one last time-- “after her dating ban is lifted, make her happy, alright?”
Chan’s facial features widen as the meaning of her words begin to sink in. “I will, Mrs. L/N!” he promises. “She’ll be the happiest girl alive; I swear to it!”
Your mother gives him a small smile and a tight nod. “Then don’t leave her alone in the car any longer.”
Chan bows profusely to her before running to meet you in the taxi.
