Eleanor
- Eleanor wonders if Park will look different to her, now that he's said he loves her. She thinks he does look different—"more beautiful than ever" (21.5), to be precise.
- They're starting to be tentatively relaxed with each other; she leans into him and puts the Beatles mix tape she made for him into his pocket, while he holds her hand.
- She tells him she can come over after school. Park says he can even have girls in his room if he keeps the door open, which reminds Eleanor that this is all very new; she still doesn't think she knows him very well.
Park
- Park's nervous about showing Eleanor to his parents, especially since his mom is a "beautician who sold Avon" (21.28) who got upset at rocker Patti Smith's look on SNL, saying, "Why would she want to look like man? It's so sad" (21.28).
- Of course, Eleanor is wearing her usual gender-bending outfit: a man's shirt and a sharkskin suit jacket.
- Park also realizes Eleanor isn't "nice" (21.31). She was a lot of other wonderful things, but she didn't do "smiling and small talk and eye contact" (21.33).
- Park gets home before Eleanor and tells his mom that she's coming over. "Just… be cool" (21.41), he says to his mom. Parents, right?
- When Eleanor gets there, she looks angry, which Park knows really means she's nervous. She meets Park's mom, which is the most awkward moment ever; Eleanor fails at trying to smile.
- They sit on the couch together, but Eleanor is miserable. She starts to cry silently and tells him she's going home, saying, "I shouldn't be here, I'm going to embarrass you" (21.84). Oh, Eleanor.
- Park begs her not to leave. They sit together for about twenty more minutes, and then Eleanor can't take it anymore, and goes home.
Eleanor
- Eleanor definitely thinks Park will break up with her now. She thinks his dad's photo looked "just like Tom Selleck" (21.115) and that the whole family looks adorable; his mom, in fact, "looked exactly like a doll" (21.116). His mom is much tinier than Eleanor, and Eleanor thinks they don't even look like the same species.
- Eleanor concludes that Park will break up with her because she's a "huge mess. Because she couldn't even be around regular people without freaking out" (21.120). She thinks Park's house is "normal" and "perfect" (21.120) compared to her own living situation, and that Park's perfect family doesn't fit at all with the other messed-up families in their neighborhood.
- Eleanor thinks she would never belong in Park's house: "She never felt like she belonged anywhere, except for when she was lying on her bed, pretending to be somewhere else" (21.124).