chapter 09: Dinner party

Kaino's POV

Gentle barking in the otherwise silent room wakes me up from my sleep immediately. I open my eyes and with an unclear vision I see pup barking from where he sat. He's still on his bed but instead of sleeping, he sat on the bed and is barking. Thinking maybe he's hungry or he need to go out for a walk, I go to get up but doesn't succeed. When I look down, I find Parker sleeping on me. A warm feeling spreads within me which breaks a smile on my face. I gently caress his cheek and try to move him onto the pillow so that I can take care of pup but he only ends up moving closer to me.

"Parker, wake up." I whisper softly into his ear to which he groans in protest and snuggles to me while burying his face into my chest.

I chuckle as he mumbles in protest. I think not to wake him up anymore but pup's barking doesn't stop, instead he barks even more louder now. I'm surprised Parker didn't wake up with how loud he's barking. Not wanting to disturb him, I gently separate him from me and lay his head on the pillow. He squirms alittle but nonetheless settles down when I place a pillow for him to hug. After making sure he's sleeping well, I get down the bed and walk to pup.

Bending down, I ruffle pup's hair and he jumps on me. I catch him before he could fall down and leave the room so that Parker can sleep without any disturbance. When I walk into the living room, I find father sitting on the couch as he watch news while mother is in the kitchen cooking something.

"Good morning, father." I greet him immediately making him look at me from the TV.

"Oh! Morning Kaino, you woke up already?" He asks with a smile.

"Yeah, he started barking so I had to wake up." I reply while lifting pup in my hands to show him.

"I see, maybe he is in need of a walk." He chuckles before going back to his news.

"I'll be going out for a while, if Parker asks about me then tell him about it." I tell him and when he nods at me, I leave the house.

There's a small park in this neighborhood, I take pup there so that he can walk for how long he wants to. When we reach the park after walking for five minutes, I hold the leash as he starts walking around the place. He walks around fifteen to twenty minutes and when he's done with his work, I take him back to our house. By the time I go back, I see everyone in the living room. While father and mother are watching TV, Parker is sitting on the couch playing with their pet.

Pup starts barking seeing another dog and that earns us attention from them. Getting up from the couch, Parker quickly walks to me while the puppy runs behind him.

"Father said you took pup for a walk. You could have woke me up, I would come along with you." He states while taking pup from me.

"I did try waking you up but you weren't getting up and pup was being uncontrollable, so I had to go." I respond before bending down and lifting the puppy in my hands, he's so small unlike pup and so cute.

"You could have tried until I woke up. See, now I missed his first walk." He pouts at me as if he missed first walk of his child when it's just a puppy.

"It's okay, Parker. From now on you would have to take him on the walk everyday." I chuckle and turn to mother when she calls us.

"You both, let's eat breakfast." She says and walks into the kitchen.

Nodding at her, I go to the room to clean up before leaving the puppy down. Father ties it in his spot as both the pets bark continuously. If they end up fighting that wouldn't be good. After going to the room, I quickly clean up and get back to the dining table where everyone is already seated and are ready to eat. I take a seat next to Parker and he fills my plate with food.

"That's enough, Parker." I stop him as he goes on placing alot of food in my plate.

"He's so excited because he specifically made that food for you." Mother chuckles as Parker turns red at her words.

"I see but it's not the first time I'm eating the food you cooked, Parker." I say because from two months I'm eating the food made by him.

"He says for the past five days you ate food outside and that wouldn't taste good nor good for your health. So when he found me cooking breakfast, he almost pushed me away and made it for you." Mother tells as father and mother laugh.

"Mother!" Parker whines, his face turning bright red.

"What? Didn't you tell me the same thing when I asked you why you want to cook when I already prepared the breakfast for us." Mother resorts and I look at their plates to find their food indeed being different from ours.

"Thank you, Parker. I really missed eating your handmade food." I state genuinely but that only makes him more shy.

And like that our breakfast continues with chatters and laughters here and there. After our breakfast, we decided to head back home. But mother and father asked us to stay until lunch and that we can leave after eating. So we ate lunch and now finally making our way to our home.

"We'll get going now." Parker says while bringing our bags from his room and handing them to me as he takes pup from my hands.

"Bye, Parker." Mother bids as they walk with us towards the car.

I load our luggage in the trunk and stand beside Parker as we bid goodbye to them. For one last time, he takes berry into his hands before giving pup to me. Though now I got him a puppy, berry is still loved by him and in fact all of us. He is just too cute and small. After cooing at the puppy for few seconds, he hands him to mother and we get in the car. With one last look at them and waving our hands at them, I pull away from the house.

"Why did you stop here?" Parker asks when I stop the car at a store awhile into the drive.

"We need to buy all the things necessary things for pup. I only got the most important things given by the store lady in Japan. She gave me a list and asked me to buy the other things later." I tell him as I get down the car.

He follows me before nodding at me as he too get down the car with pup and walks along with me into the store. I hand over the list to the guy and we wait as he gathers all the things. We wait for few minutes and when he finishes getting everything, I pay the bill and head back home. After a drive of twenty minutes when we reach our home, we take our luggage and I plop down on the couch. I'm exhausted, honestly. Though I stayed at parents house and had a rest for the night, being at home feels different.

As I mop on the couch, Parker take our bags to our room's before leaving pup in the living room where he roams all around. Parker comes out of the room and heads to the kitchen while I fish out my phone from my pocket as it dings indicating I received a message. When I open the text, it reads that today there would a party for our team as a celebratory dinner because the deal got approved successful by the head officials. It also mentioned we could bring our family. I sigh as I close the text and throw my phone to the side. Can't I get a day break?

"What's wrong?" Parker queries as he walks out of the kitchen and hands me a glass of apple juice.

I take it from him and gulp down the whole juice while he sits next to me and takes a sip from his own. Placing down the empty glass after drinking the juice, I rest my head on his shoulder before picking pup up as he runs to me.

"There's a party today because the deal got approved. They sent a message just now saying we should attend it with the family." I reply to his previous question while rubbing pup's soft fur.

"Should I come with you?" He queries because I said we should attend with the family.

"Your wish, I'm fine with anything whether you want to come or not." I respond honestly because I myself not really interested to go there and knowing how he doesn't like places with crowd, I won't force him to come with me.

"I'll come with you." He mumbles few minutes later and I slightly move my head up to look at him.

"Really?" I inquire doubtfully.

"Really," he confirms before continuing, "but you should stay by my side. You shouldn't leave me even for a second."

"Ofcourse, I'll always be by your side." I promise making him nod at me.

The rest of the afternoon goes by in a blink of an eye and as it starts getting dark, we get ready for the party. After feeding pup with his food we make our way to the restaurant where the party is taking place. When we reach the venue, the valet takes the keys to park the car so Parker and I head inside.

"Don't be nervous, I'm right here, am I not?" I assure Parker as I feel his anxiousness while walking with him.

To my words he doesn't say anything instead he just nods his head. Knowing him, I lace my hands with his before intertwining our hands together. He glances at me and I smile at him in assurance. Smiling back at me, he tightens our hands and I lead us inside the cabin which they bought for this night. Immediately after entering inside, I get greeted by my colleagues and the team head. I greet them all and introduce them to Parker. Everyone looks at us shocked. It's understandable. I don't like I talk about my personal life and family matters with others. I never told anyone about me being already married and to a guy in specific.

But their reactions didn't bother me, I just went on my way and sat at the table allotted to us. We get served with drinks and I just sit there waiting for the dinner to get over so that I can go back home. Just then my phone starts ringing and my mom's name flashes on the screen. With a wide smile I answer the call immediately. Though they live far away from me, we call eachother regularly. Not everyday as we'll be busy with work but whenever we find time, we call eachother.

"Hey, mom. How are you?" I ask but couldn't hear what she says, "just a minute mom."

Realising the noise in the room is making it hard to converse I decide to go out and talk.

"Ame, when my husband gets back tell him I went out to attend a call from my parents." I inform one of my colleague who sat in the next table to mine as Parker went to washroom.

"Sure, Kaino." She nods and I thank her before leaving the room so that I can talk to my parents.