Enhypen Imagines

Ninety Years Away | J.S

Currently book work in progress

Moving my weight back and forth between my heels and my toes I felt quite uneasy while I glanced around. In a corner stood a make-shift band playing music in whatever scraps and pieces they could put together as an instrument or on actual instruments that were extremely worn out. It seemed that no one minded the horrible condition of the instruments, as I watched them all go around, asking each other to dance, smiling widely and laughing as their crush asked them to dance.

"If I may," a boy walked up and extended his hand to the girl beside me.

I pulled on a tight smile, beginning to regret that I even showed up at one of these dances. The Irish girl in my house had spoken so efficiently of this one house in Brooklyn, where imigrated ethnicities hosted dances for new imigrants to find someone to relate to. 

However, the excitement of a Chinese hosted dance had subsided by a bit when I had shown up and realized that it wasn't dances like they used to where in China... it was... almost americanized. Dance moves I hadn't seen before at home, groves and music I hadn't heard before. I had hoped there to be something recognizeable in all this.

"You don't look too happy," a boy's voice commented from beside me, making me glance to him before letting out a snort and shaking my head, "no words?"

"Confidence in English," I excused and he just nodded, tugging at his lips to make an expression that just spoke 'understandable'.

"Sounds amazing to me," he remarked, letting me hear a hint of another accent.

"Are you Australian?" I let out a small laugh and he immediately shook his head with a small laugh.

"I was kind of stranded there for a few years before I could catch the next ship to New York," he excuses and I let out a small whistle, "yup... it was some long three months... are you new here in Brooklyn?"

"I'm situated in Queens," I admitted with a small smile and he let out a small nod.

"I see one of us escaped Lower East Manhattan," the boy commented and sipped of a cup he was holding in his hands, "you must have been here long."

"About half a year," I shrugged and he widened his eyes at me.

"Are you serious?" he gasped, almost choking on whatever he was drinking, "sweetie I've been here since 27."

"1927?" I questioned and he just nodded before frowning.

"No, 1827. Of course it's 1927," he remarked with sarcasm, "I was 17... also what is this?"

He held up his cup with a frown, as if inspecting the beverage. I carefully grabbed his cup and sniffed it.

"Baijiu," I excused and he scrunched up his nose.

"The only good it does me is make that music better quality," he commented and nodded towards the band.

"Right?" I exclaimed with a small laugh and handed him back his cup, which he immediately just placed on a random table, while shoving his hands into the pockets of his pants.

"I suppose we both should be heading out then," he stated and glanced to me, while I looked him up and down.

"You haven't even told me your name," I remarked with a small smile and he immediately extended his hand towards me.

"Jake Shim at your service," he announced and I smiled as I shook his hand.

"Shim? That doesn't sound too Chinese," I remarked and he let out a small laugh before shaking his head immediately.

"You'd be surprised by how few arrangements there is for us Koreans," he remarked and I hummed with squinted eyes at him, "your name?"

"Millie Huang," I replied and he smiled softly before nodding his head towards the exit.

Within seconds I had turned around and grabbed my coat, rushing out after him into the chill November air. Turns out New York was a lot colder than anyone back in China had admitted it to be.

I quickly pulled on my coat as Jake simply buttoned up his, waiting for me to tie the waist band on my coat, while he kept his hands in his pockets.

"Tell me... miss Huang, what brings you to New York?" Jake spoke up and I let out a small laugh.

"What? You don't have strict and expecting parents in Korea?" I retorted and he let out a small laugh at me before nodding, "you can imagine my parents' excitement when they heard my high school grades were high enough for me to establish myself in the states... get an education, oh no wait... no one wants to accept an Asian woman in their university," I sarcastially commented, walking alongside Jake down the street.

"So what are you doing then?" he questioned and glanced over at me as I let out a small laugh.

"I work in a shelter during the day... cooking food for the handicapped and homeless, go to evening school at night," I sighed as I glanced over at him, "and let me guess for you," I offered and he smiled widely at the idea, "so if you came here when you were 17... but you were stuck in Australia for some time my guess is... you must've spent at least a year in Australia."

"Two actually," Jake hinted and I just nodded with a small hum.

"So you were 15 when you left Korea," I hummed and he just nodded at me, "meaning you're here for some teenage dream, your parents probably disapproved off."

"I definitely am," Jake nodded with a laugh, which had the smallest hints of pain in it.

"I'm gonna guess you fell for the illusion of the perfect life in America... you might... you work a physically demanding job on the daily but you want to study something important, somethnig with numbers," I guessed and he looked at me, raising his eyebrows before nodding.

"I'm impressed," he stated with a nod, "but I am a full-time student," he admitted and now it was my turn to look at him with an impressed look, "I did have a physically demanding job when I first came here. I was a carpenter... I did some work at a Dean's office in Bronx last year, he saw my potential with numbers and offered me a spot on the economics studies for a spring semester and if I succeeded his expectations for me he would pay all my tuition."

"And?" I questioned, feeling quite excited for the possibility this boy, who I had only known for no longer than half an hour, had gotten.

"Well... currently I'm top of my economics class," he admitted and I let out a small laugh and raised my eyebrows as if to ask if he was serious, "mhm," he hummed with a small nod as I came to a halt at the tram stop on which I would get on the tram.

"Well... I'm just gonna wait for my tram here," I excused and he nodded, standing beside me as he patiently waited as well, "you're going with it as well?"

"Oh, no, no," he shook his head with a small laugh before pointing back down where we came from, "I'm going that way. I just wanted to assure you came home safely, the way I could escort you."

"Well... Jake Shim, you need to promise me one thing," I reminded him and he just hummed as he turned to me, "you have to finish at the top of your economics class now... you have made me too excited on your behalf."

"Who is housing you?" he questioned and I squinted my eyes at him, with a small smile on my face, showing him I didn't really think he was a creep for asking that, "Annalina Smitherson," I replied and he hummed, "what are you gonna use it for?"

"I could use the good karma of volunteering in a shelter, don't you think?" he remarked as my tram zoomed up towards the stop, letting both Jake and I realize we had to bid our goodbyes, "I can assure you this isn't the last you're seeing of me miss Huang."

I let out a small laugh as I stepped up on the tram, and grabbed onto the nearest iron pole to keep myself steady.

"I'll be looking forward to that," I remarked with a smile.

Just like Jake promised that night it surely wasn't the last time I saw him. Not even another week passed before our next encounter, and the time periods would only shorten with each time we met.