National Athlete.
Bi.
Dating Nika.
10/19/2000.
23.
Dragon (WA)
Authored by Etienne.
Offline.
|
Post by Inkar Mun on Apr 16, 2019 22:53:46 GMT -8
This was the second time that Inkar was meeting up with Timur for lunch since he'd moved out. In the past year, he'd been making an active effort to get to know her better, but it was still awkward. For a long time, he'd been very distant, and she got it better now, especially with youngest siblings eighteen years her junior, and twenty-seven years his. She figured that that had to even weirder for him.
It was late on Saturday morning, and there was a small food truck fair that was happening at the Commons for the brunch and lunch hours, signs of the start of the good weather season, and when it had looked like the weather would actually be alright on the forecast, she'd suggested it. She was glad that her older brother had agreed. It was a nice day out, and she appreciated the chance to be outdoors. Someone was playing a guitar somewhere, and there were kids playing with a soccer ball nearby.
She had gotten to the spot that they'd said they'd meet over half an hour early, and she managed to hit a time that Kangwan and Thomas were both online, which she'd not done in months, so she'd been chatting with them on her phone, glad for the marvels of the internet meaning that her parents wouldn't be mad about international texts. Every few minutes, she glanced up and looked around for Timur, hoping that maybe he would show up early too. The food trucks had started to gather, and considering she'd done a major track workout that morning because she was gearing up for what was potentially her make or break season for a sports career, and she was starving, especially now that she could smell food.
Timur Mun
|
|
Aerospace Engineer.
Homosexual.
Single.
06/10/1991.
33.
Sheep (WA)
Authored by Redeim.
Offline.
|
Post by Timur Mun on Apr 22, 2019 20:39:00 GMT -8
Timur was running a bit later than he'd like, but as long as traffic cooperated he'd be able to meet up with his sister just at their planned meetup time. It was still a weird concept that he was even meeting up with his sister, intentionally, and not back at their parent's place. But Inkar was an adult now, and she was a real person with real ideas and he finally felt comfortable around her. Which he could only hope his other siblings could get to that point before he lost any chance whatsoever to have arelationship with them. He would be regretful but not upset if it happened with the much younger ones, but his siblings that were almost there would be a bit disappointing if loss of communication were to happen.
He found a parking spot, not without difficulty, and searched around for his little sister. Finally, he found her, and approached her. "Sorry if I kept you waiting long." He told Inkar.
|
|
National Athlete.
Bi.
Dating Nika.
10/19/2000.
23.
Dragon (WA)
Authored by Etienne.
Offline.
|
Post by Inkar Mun on Apr 22, 2019 22:47:19 GMT -8
As she saw Timur approaching, she said into the microphone on her earbuds, still speaking in Korean, "Hyung's here. I'll catch you later. Good luck for performances and tests respectively."
By the time Timur got all the way to her, she'd pocketed her earbuds and said, "It's alright, I've been here for about half an hour, but that was because I was early because I didn't want to stick around at home after showering after my run lest I get sucked into baby care, and I used the time with talking with my friends who are in Korea because I managed to catch both of them online."
She stood and stretched before asking, "So what did you have in mind for lunch from among the food trucks. I've been waiting to eat until you got here, and I'm ravenous. How have you been? How's living on your own treating you?"
|
|
Aerospace Engineer.
Homosexual.
Single.
06/10/1991.
33.
Sheep (WA)
Authored by Redeim.
Offline.
|
Post by Timur Mun on May 19, 2019 11:43:17 GMT -8
"Cool." Timur replied simply to Inkar's comment about her friends in Korea. He looked around at the food trucks available and shrugged, "I don't have a preference, so if you've been eying something we can go to that one."
He let out a short laugh at her question about living alone. "I've been fine. I've found myself listening to a lot of music lately to fill the silence." He gave her a slightly teasing grin, "which is still much better than crying babies." He shook his head, looking off into the distance with a bewildered face, "I still can't believe I have two month old siblings when I'm 27." He looked back to his sister, "I have about... three friends and no less than ten old classmates that have kids older than our siblings. I swear I've sworn off having kids." He rambled. It was all in jest, though there was some seriousness to it, he actually did plan to not have any kids of his own, partially because he was gay and didn't feel like adopting, but mainly because of how awkward he was with kids.
|
|
National Athlete.
Bi.
Dating Nika.
10/19/2000.
23.
Dragon (WA)
Authored by Etienne.
Offline.
|
Post by Inkar Mun on May 20, 2019 23:07:24 GMT -8
Inkar pointed to the truck that had Ethiopian food, and said, "The smell from that one has been taunting me especially."
Inkar nodded vigorously as his comment and said, "I am super glad I've got your old room, so a door that I can close, and decently good headphones because any time I'm studying at home, I've definitely been using music to drown out the rest of the sounds."
She shook her head and said, "I still like kids OK. Taijia, the kid I babysit for, he's great, but there's also only one of him. Maybe I'll adopt someday or something. Once all of our younger siblings are old enough that maybe they can babysit sometimes in return for all the times mom or dad made me babysit."
She stretched and added, "I mean, it's a little less surprising to me that you have friends and classmates with kids older than the babies than that I've got at least five former soccer teammates, granted from years above me in school, with kids older than the twins."
She shrugged and added, "Like I'm happy for mom and dad, I guess. They seem happy about it, but I'm going to at some point get mistaken for these kids' mom, and that's just going to be weird. I don't even have a gir-um, partner yet, and it's years before I'd even be thinking about kids."
She said half joking, "Maybe I'll end up choosing which college to go to based on who offers me a spot in the dorms as part of a scholarship."
She shook her head and said, "Honestly though, I'm probably going to end up living at home. UW Bothell is looking the most promising in terms of intersection between offering me a full ride, sports stuff, and academics, and that means that living at home will be the simplest option for sure."
She didn't really want to keep living at home necessarily, but it wasn't like she had friends from her year who she wanted to move in with. Maybe Liz in a few years, but honestly, Liz was helping her mom pay rent, and she definitely didn't want to move in with Liz and her mom. Maybe she'd find a girlfriend or something and move in with her, college seemed like it would be promising for that.
|
|
Aerospace Engineer.
Homosexual.
Single.
06/10/1991.
33.
Sheep (WA)
Authored by Redeim.
Offline.
|
Post by Timur Mun on May 29, 2019 20:00:23 GMT -8
Timur nodded and began heading over to that food truck, keeping quiet to let his sister talk. He raised an eyebrow slightly as she mentioned adopting kids instead of having her own, and then raised it more as she stuttered over pronouns before settling on using partner. He cleared his throat as she seemed to finish talking. "Uhh... Yeah. Living in the dorms isn't all it's cracked up to be, honestly. I'm actually glad I decided to move back home from the dorm rooms, believe it or not. I guess... at least at home, it's noise I'm used to? And not like... college noises?" He said, not really sure how to describe it. There was a strangely unique difference at being woken up by crying babies at 3am versus being woken up by the football guys playing beer pong in the dorm next to yours, or something similar. "I don't know, maybe I just wasn't cut out for dorm life in general, but I really didn't like it." He added. "I mean, I wouldn't mind a roommate now, just to have someone to hang out with or something, but I'm also enjoying the peace and freedom of having a place to myself."
|
|
National Athlete.
Bi.
Dating Nika.
10/19/2000.
23.
Dragon (WA)
Authored by Etienne.
Offline.
|
Post by Inkar Mun on May 31, 2019 23:20:43 GMT -8
Inkar grumbled teasingly, "Who knows, if the crying babies gets to be too much when I'm trying to study in college and you have spare room, I might come borrow it."
She paused for a beat and added, "Only if you were OK with it though."
She thought for another moment and added, "Is there anyone that you'd want as a roommate? There's a part of me that feels like living by yourself would be incredible, but I'm so used to having so many people around that it seems like it could be kind of lonely too?"
She added, "The only school friend that I could see rooming with is for one a year behind me in school, and for another lives with her single mom and already helps with rent, so like, she's not going to change that any time terribly soon, and even if I started dating someone now, it would be dumb to move in with them that soon, like when I started college."
She eyed the food menu for the food truck and placed an order for a chicken platter. She especially liked the bread that it was served on, but she knew that her muscles would thank her for the protein from the chicken. She wasn't sure if they were each paying for their own, or if Timur was treating, so she glanced back at him and asked awkwardly, "Are we, um, paying together or separately?"
She certainly had enough pocket money from babysitting Tai that she wasn't worried either way, but Timur had a grown up job, so she wasn't going to feel bad if he offered to feed her.
|
|
Aerospace Engineer.
Homosexual.
Single.
06/10/1991.
33.
Sheep (WA)
Authored by Redeim.
Offline.
|
Post by Timur Mun on Jun 7, 2019 20:00:36 GMT -8
"Um..." Timur began, but he'd never really thought about it. Maybe a boyfriend if he ever got one, but he didn't see that happening anytime soon, especially since he dind't really actively seek out lgbtq spaces. "No one specific for roommates, I guess. You can come borrow the spare occasionally if you want, and if I like you around," he gave her a smile to show he was joking, "maybe we can discuss more long term rooming. Aiday's old enough, it's time she started babysitting too." He said, starting off sounding hesitant but more convinced by the end. If he had to room with any siblings, at least Inkar was one he could talk to almost completely comfortably.
"I can pay for you." Timur added, realizing he hadn't thought she'd even ask. He added his order to hers, getting the same thing she had, and then paying for their meals.
|
|
National Athlete.
Bi.
Dating Nika.
10/19/2000.
23.
Dragon (WA)
Authored by Etienne.
Offline.
|
Post by Inkar Mun on Jun 17, 2019 21:36:14 GMT -8
Inkar laughed and said, "Actually because I'm taking college classes at CBCC now, mom does have Aiday and even Aibek do a fair bit of the baby sitting, but if she needs the kid who can drive, that's me. Aiday will hopefully be getting her license this summer because once I'm for real going to college, she's not going to be able to use me to watch the younger ones as much, even if I do end up going to UW Bothell and living at home."
She grinned at Timur and said, "I honestly might take you up on coming over to study sometime if you're actually OK with it. But I also don't want to interrupt your social life and stuff. I know that having much younger siblings around can be weird."
She paused and said, "I think that's part of the reason I never really got super close to any of my teammates despite hanging out with them a bunch at school. I was the only one who never had people over. It's not like mom wouldn't have let me, it just seemed weird when I was younger. I didn't start having super close friends until like last year. I think that it confused mom almost. But at least she didn't throw a fuss that two of them are boys, though they both graduated last year. That's who I was talking to earlier. But Liz, the one who's the year behind me, does still come over occasionally, though a lot of the time, we hang out other places."
|
|
Aerospace Engineer.
Homosexual.
Single.
06/10/1991.
33.
Sheep (WA)
Authored by Redeim.
Offline.
|
Post by Timur Mun on Jul 16, 2019 20:40:23 GMT -8
"Fascinating, the torch has been passed down finally." Timur muttered in response to her comment about their younger siblings babysitting.
"I'm okay with the whole you coming to visit temporarily; to get away from the craziness that is our parent's house. But we'd have to see how that worked out before we discuss long terms options. Though to be perfectly honest, if I had to room with any sibling, you're the one I could most easily imagine sharing a living space with."
Timur listened to her ramble, taking it in before hesitantly speaking, "In general, it's a thin line between wanting to hang out with friends and wanting to avoid the house being completely overwhelmed with too many people, so I can see where not inviting friends over made the most sense while also being frustrating. And while I'm a little surprised she didn't fuss over your first two 'true,'" he actually used air quotes as he said it, "friends being boys, I think she was more relieved you were showing signs of actually having friends. Especially since if you asked her, she probably thinks I didn't have have any friends since we moved to America. I did, for the record, just never invited them to our place."
|
|
National Athlete.
Bi.
Dating Nika.
10/19/2000.
23.
Dragon (WA)
Authored by Etienne.
Offline.
|
Post by Inkar Mun on Jul 27, 2019 22:14:37 GMT -8
It was strangely touching for Inkar to hear Timur say that he might actually consider living with her. When she was very little, she'd thought that he hated having younger siblings, and as they got older, she'd thought that he just didn't know how to deal with them and so ignored them. She was pretty sure that that was closer to the truth from what she knew now.
She took a few bites of her food to distract herself from that thought, and then she told him, "I always figured that you didn't bring friends over because you didn't want them to have to deal with all of us, which I understand now. I don't think that I really thought about you having friends when I was little."
She laughed a little bit to herself, and figured that she would take a gamble on testing the waters with something with Timur, especially since he didn't know her friends, and said, "I think that it helped, though also kind of confused Mom, that I told her in advance that my two guy friends are dating each other. Like I'm not sure that she got it, but she was nice about it, and I think that it made her less worried about me having boys over."
|
|
Aerospace Engineer.
Homosexual.
Single.
06/10/1991.
33.
Sheep (WA)
Authored by Redeim.
Offline.
|
Post by Timur Mun on Sept 2, 2019 19:26:14 GMT -8
Timur let out a short laugh at his sister's comment about never thinking about whether he had friends or not. He supposed that was fair - he never took an interest in what his younger siblings were ever up to, so why should they have cared about him? His eyes widened as she mentioned her friends were dating each other, but he tried to look casual about it. "Oh really?" He felt a thousand thoughts bubble up, but he tried to seem casual about it. "I wouldn't have thought mom would react nicely. That's good that she was nice to them, though. Even if it was because she was just confused about it."
|
|
National Athlete.
Bi.
Dating Nika.
10/19/2000.
23.
Dragon (WA)
Authored by Etienne.
Offline.
|
Post by Inkar Mun on Sept 17, 2019 0:28:43 GMT -8
Inkar recognized that look of surprised uncertainty and hope. Should would be lying if she said that part of the reason that she'd told her mom about her friends was so that she could test those waters, and part of the reason for telling Timur in turn was to test them again.
She made a decision then. She'd been hinting around it, and now she had a hunch. She nodded when he said that he was surprised and said, "It was a pleasant surprise for sure. I may have told her about it to test the waters a little bit as well."
She paused a beat, watching for Timur's reaction and then added, "Because she was so chill about them, if a little confused, I came out to her earlier this year, and she handled it remarkably well. She's still a little confused about me being bi, but kind of supportive, not unsupportive at least."
She looked away then, bracing herself. She was sure enough that she'd been willing to take the risk of saying it while they were standing there waiting for their food, but she was glad that the food came out then as a distraction. She snagged hers and led the way towards where she'd been sitting earlier. She hoped that Timur would have a good reaction, she was pretty sure he would, but there was a tiny bit of uncertainty.
|
|
Aerospace Engineer.
Homosexual.
Single.
06/10/1991.
33.
Sheep (WA)
Authored by Redeim.
Offline.
|
Post by Timur Mun on Oct 17, 2019 11:44:48 GMT -8
Timur tilted his head to one side as his sister mentioned doing it to the test the waters. He waited a moment too long to comment on it and Inkar ended up answering the question that he was going to ask anyway.
He was frozen for a bit, taking his food well after Inkar had already grabbed hers. He felt a pang of jealousy - he'd spent so long wondering how much their mother had internalized all the homophobia from Kazakhstan and yet his little sister had already told their mom and was met with a good reception. But also, being the oldest, and also being the only to have lived in Almaty, would they have different expectations for him? Would their mom get upset with him if he came out because of it, or would Inkar already having come out help to ease their mom's reaction? It was something he'd have to ponder, and maybe attempt to observe from an unbiased view, before coming out to their mom himself. But, he figured there was no harm in coming out to his sister, since she had done so to him. He tried to speak casually, but his actions seemed stiff, and he couldn't bring himself to look her in the eyes. "It's uh... a bit of a relief to know there's another LGBT kid in the family." He even sounded and felt awkward saying it, though the words were genuine. "I've known I was gay since middle school but struggled a lot because of internalized homophobia and the thought of coming out. As much as I love and miss Kazakhstan, and recommend people visit, they still have a lot of work to do in the LGBTQ-equality section of things... Honestly, I'm a little jealous of mom's reception of your coming out; somehow I feel it wouldn't go even that well for me." He focused on poking at his food after that, waiting to hear his sister's reaction.
|
|
National Athlete.
Bi.
Dating Nika.
10/19/2000.
23.
Dragon (WA)
Authored by Etienne.
Offline.
|
Post by Inkar Mun on Oct 22, 2019 2:02:03 GMT -8
Inkar grinned at him, glad that she'd been on the mark with her guess. She said, "Mom might surprise you. Being in the US for as long as she has, I think it's changed her view on some things."
She paused for a moment, and then something clicked in her mind, and she said, "I think that there's positive change in terms of just how people see things in Kazakhstan as well. I mean, I'm still going to be very circumspect when I visit for track stuff, but I'm not like scared scared. I'm not super out in general. Other than my close friends, and the GSA, I've told Mom and you."
She wasn't sure that Timur knew about the whole athletic side of things on her side, but she didn't want to dwell on it unless he asked after she'd dropped it. Something occurred to her with their conversational topic though, something that she thought would reassure Timur a little bit. She dug around for her phone and held an earbud out towards Timur, saying, "I have no clue what you usually listen to music wise, but I feel like there's a Qpop, um Kazakh pop, song that you need to experience considering the conversation."
She queued up The Kitchen Song's "Ekeýmіzge Bárіbіr," waiting for Timur to take the spare earbud and tucking the other in her ear before she started it, turning the screen so that he could see.
|
|
