The Result
🦋🦋🦋
“Oh my God, it’s Aye! Aye!!”
Almost instantly after Hyung let out his jubilant cry, it felt as though time had simply stopped. An intense numbness seized my body. Not the tingly foot-asleep kind of numb, but a deep numbness that seemed to seep into every cell in my body. Despite the likely commotion that must have erupted in the wake of Hyung’s announcement, all that registered in my ears was a deafening silence, as if my senses had ceased to function properly.
Then, time resumed its relentless ticking again. Within milliseconds of my senses returning, tears the size of small blueberries started to flow uncontrollably from my eyes, streaming down to the floor as though a force had pried my tear ducts wide open.
“Hey, man, you did it!” Hyung shouted, skidding across the room to tenderly cradle my head within the comfort of his broad shoulders and chest. “Why are you crying, my man? Shouldn’t you be dancing right now? Remember Nietsche?”
I very much wanted to dance with uninhibited joy, as if I were the modern incarnation of Dionysus hosting an ebullient feast surrounded by his entourage of Pan, satyrs, poets, musicians, and dancers. But my body wouldn’t comply; I was too stunned to even move. Even if I attempted to let out a whoop and a holler, no sound would have escaped my lips. The only thought dominating my dazed mind was relief: the little kitten was now out of harm’s way.
🦋
When I finally raised my head to scan the living room through tear-filled eyes, I saw Mom frozen on the sofa, visibly shell shocked. At the entrance doorway, my sisters stood anxiously, with Maknae’s left hand gripping the doorknob, apparently ready to make a swift exit should Mom morph into the Hulk. They were also looking at each other with astonishment, but a hint of relief crossed their faces, likely glad that their votes hadn’t been wasted.
In the midst of this chaos, Hyung sauntered over to the coffee table and retrieved the final ballot from the box. Unfolding the paper, he hesitated briefly before shaking his head and shouting, “Wow, another Aye!”
As soon as the sound waves carrying Hyung’s exclamation reached our eardrums, every pair of eyes swiveled in sync toward Dad. Mom seemed more blindsided, actually gut-punched, by this new revelation than by the loss of the vote, her eyes and mouth as wide as a full moon.
Dad, sitting next to her, leapt up with a speed rivaling Jackie Chan in one of his action movies to avoid Mom’s impending smash on his back, the force behind this whack having the potential to be as devastatingly powerful as a spike from the outside hitter for the U.S. women’s national volleyball team. With the urgency of a panicked college freshman who had overslept for an 8 a.m. final exam, he scurried toward the kitchen, narrowly avoiding a collision with the coffee table, and eventually escaped to his vegetable garden, thank God.