Is Your Heart Not Shaken?

“Hey you’ve reached Hyosang sorry I missed your call but leave your name and a message and I’ll get back to you.” That useless bastard, I rolled over on my bed staring at my cell willing him to call me back. “3…. 2…... 1.” My countdown brought me a ringing in my head instead of from my phone.  “I swear, how many times do I have to call before you answer?” I looked up at my mother who at the moment was as red as the plastic lid she was holding. “Oh I’m sorry mom I didn’t hear you.” Was the reply I gave, getting up from my bed to stand in front of my slightly shorter mother I looked her in the eyes with a apologetic look, seeing her eyes soften I knew I was off the hook. “Get dressed we are going to meet the new neighbors.” “The foreigners from down the hall?” It was a statement that came out in the form of a question.  It was a fact that we had gotten new neighbors in our apartment building but as far as I knew my parents hadn’t met them? “Yes them, they’re the Michaels.” She corrected and continued. ”This morning on your father’s way to work he ran into Mr. Michaels in the elevator and invited us over for dinner.” The whole time she was explaining the situation she went about straightening up random things in my room. “So that being said your father get’s home in ten so you’d best be ready in twen-“Her words stopped as she looked at the watch on her wrist a recent anniversary gift from dad. “Oh my god the cookies!” And just like that she was out of my room instructing me to wash and dress appropriately. “This could have all been avoided if you had answered your cell phone Kim Hyosang.” With sigh I quickly followed my mother’s instructions and was ready in fifteen minutes and sitting in the living room waiting for my mother who had a bake sale’s worth of sweets to bring to the Michael’s “Seokjin help me with these please.” I rushed over to my struggling mother and lifted the box of goods from her hands. “Your father said he’ll be here in about half an hour or so, so we’ll head over to the Michael’s and he’ll meet us there.” I nodded even though she couldn’t see me over the mountain of sweets, I heard her grab her keys, and then she grabbed my arm lightly to steer me towards the door. It was a relatively quick walk I mean they only lived down the hall. Just as we stopped at what I assumed was the door my mother let go of my arm and snapped her fingers. “I forgot the flowers, Seokjin knock and go and introduce yourself I’ll be as quick as a fox.” And with that she left me to awkwardly knock on the door and wait for one of the strangers to open it. It took a second but I heard a muffled female voice whom I assumed to be Mrs. Michaels, the door was opened but I still couldn’t see over the box but I heard the presumed Mrs. Michaels squeal and say something to a male voice from inside their apartment in English, Mrs. Michaels said something else in English and I guess she was telling me she would take the box because I was no longer holding it.  I bowed and greeted her politely before really looking at her. “Hello Mrs. Michaels I’m Kim Seokjin from the apartment down the hall thank you for inviting us to dinner.” I was met by silence, so I looked up staring at her feet she was wearing frog house slippers and a white dress the amount of skin showing more than any mother I’d ever seen though, her skin a smooth brown color, was quite flawless I noticed she was shorter than me  and as I worked my way up I notice the v shaped chin and a birth mark on the left side of her lips which were colored a pretty red and then I saw them large and sparkling, the color of honey, her eyes were beautiful, and atop her head was a head full wild pitch black curls. “Uhmmm?” She started but stopped holding one painted finger signaling me to wait there, after a quick yell a very tall man appeared in the door next to her. “Oh hello you must be Kim Jaeguk’s son, seok Jin right?” I numbly nodded slightly amazed at his Korean it was so perfect it seemed like dubbing. “How rude of me come in.” As I stepped in and removed my shoes to replace them with the house shoes they had prepared, I noticed that even thought we lived in the same building the layout of their apartment was quite different from ours. As I was led into the living room my eyes kept flickering to Mrs. Michaels, even though Mr. Michaels wasn’t particularly ancient looking he looked too old for his wife who looked around my age. My thoughts were interrupted by Mr. Michaels asking where my parents were. “My mother left something in the house and my father is on his way from the office.” He nodded at my explanation, it was then that another woman walked in with a smile on her face and stood in front of me. A few sentences spoken in English were passed between the new woman and Mr. Michaels. “Seokjin this is my wife Regina, Regina this is Kim Seokjin from down the hall.” I shot up quickly to bow to the real Mrs. Michaels. “It’s very nice to meet you, thank you for having me and my family over for dinner.” “We’re very happy to have you, you’ll be our first guest.” As she was speaking in her slightly accented Korean Mr. Michael’s pulled up the now unknown female, and made her bow by pushing her head down with his own hand. “And this is our daughter Sabrine, she can’t speak Korean yet.” Daughter the word rang in my head a few times, now that makes much more sense. “I’m sorry I thought she was your wife I didn’t know you had a daughter.” Mr. Michaels and Mrs. Michaels let out a few laughs which earned a slight blush from me; a nudge in Mr. Michael’s side halted his laughter as he translated everything to Sabrine. The look on her face was a mixture of emotions all at once, and honestly it was quite adorable she exchanged a few words with her father and then gestured toward my direction. “She said are you saying that she looks old or that I look young.” I looked between both of them, I started to get a little nervous, I didn’t want to offend anyone just as I was about to pass out from the pressure of it all, Mr. Michaels and Sabrine both laughed out. Much to my confusion and discomfort Mrs. Michaels placed a hand on my shoulder. “They’re just playing with you don’t worry about it.” She turned around and replied in English I don’t know what she said but by the look on Sabrine’s face and the smug smile on her father’s I guessed she must have said her daughter looked old. I was going to tell her I didn’t agree but it was then that the door bell rang signaling the arrival of my parents I could tell tonight would be an interesting one.