Flutter (v.)

-  Butterflies cannot see their own wings but they recognize that they must flutter it to show the world of its beauty.

First dates are supposed to be memorable. Typically they consist of the couple meeting in a neutral place – say a mall or a park, – watch a movie, have coffee, then talk. Choi Minho’s idea of a first date, however, is anything but typical.

He invited me to come over at their house downtown. His family just moved in the city, although he’s been living here for some time now. He explained that his family loved to move to different places. They are nomads he told me, and this time their nomadic expedition led them in our city.

Their house is in a different part of the city. Their lane is lined with similar looking houses with a little touch of personality, perhaps to distinguish each other from the monotony. Once the driver stopped the car, I was led out and greeted by Choi Minho.

Their yard had hedges that have been shaped into different punctuation marks – a period, a comma, a colon, quotation marks, apostrophes, a question mark, and an exclamation point. I couldn’t help but wonder what sort of people his family were. They were eccentric, that’s for sure, and probably had a penchant for language.

He led me into the front door and when I got in the first thing I noticed was the boxes that are lying on the floor. “Sorry, we’re still unpacking,” he apologetically explained to me. I noticed too how few the boxes were. I imagined that if our family were to move on, we’d probably use more than hundred boxes that would take years to unpack. No kidding. I do have a tendency to hold on to things after all.

We head to the kitchen for a snack and when we got there I saw a boy my age sitting on the kitchen counter.

“Get out of there, Kibum,” Minho scolded the boy.

“Yeah, yeah, I know. You’re boyfriend’s here and you don’t want to be disturbed,” he retorted offhandedly.

I blushed at his statement and Choi Minho was obviously spluttering beside me. Just when I was about to correct his misconception, he took my hand and shook.

“I’m Kibum. Minho’s brother. Nice to meet you,” he said sweetly.

I bowed down in response. Kibum chuckled.

“I totally forgot. My bad,” he said and bowed down as well. “I haven’t been in Korea for years now so the bowing slipped my mind.”

“That’s fine, Kibum” I replied.

Kibum closed the gap between us and inspected me closely before asking Choi Minho, “You’re dating a freshman?”

Minho rolled his eyes before responding, “He’s not a freshman. We’re both seniors.”

Kibum’s jaw dropped. “Omo. I’m sorry hyung. You just looked so young.”

I wanted to correct him and tell him that indeed, I was too young to be in college but Minho replied before me.

“He’s sixteen and a genius.” he said.

Kibum cocked his head to the side. “So I’m older than you then. Anyway, what are you majoring in?”

“Physics,” I answered.

Choi Minho pushed Kibum away from the kitchen even before Kibum can respond again. Forgetting the reason why we went to the kitchen in the first place, he grabbed my hand and led me upstairs and inside a room, presumably his bedroom.

He locked the door as soon as we were both inside.

“I’m sorry. My brother can be uh…, a little insensitive when it comes to personal space,” Choi Minho.

“It’s okay Choi Minho.”

“Stop calling me that.”

“Calling you what?”

“By my whole name. It’s annoying.”

“Oh. Minho then.”

“No honorific?” He teased.

“Honorifics are only reserved for people who actually deserve them,” I joked backed.

Minho let out a small