Mason made a mad dash for the door, his socked feet sliding on the hardwood at the bottom of the stairs. It was too late though, his parents had melted from the depths of the house to stand at the front door, grinning widely as the door creaked open.
His girlfriend Janette was behind that door and she looked stunning as always. A cute Korean girl with deep chestnut hair that like him stood taller than his parents. She was dressed like she usually did on their dates, sneakers, a beautiful dark green top, and dark dress pants now that it was winter.
“Annyeong Haseyo,” Janette greeted while his parents stared at her with large grins on their faces and impressed looks in their eyes. His mom reached up and snatched a bowl of something or other from Janette’s hand and judging by her smile it was one of Janette’s Korean dishes.
She was an expert in the kitchen, he’d found that out since starting to date her. Every lunch smelled amazing, every traded half a sandwich smelled great, and the second she had to prepare anything Korean you were in for a treat, she’d been cooking some of those recipes since she was eight.
“You must be Janette,” her father chuckled while shaking her hand, his vocal tones matched Mason’s but he had a thick accent lining his voice. “So nice to meet you.”
“And so pretty and tall,” his mother added while seeming to measure every curve of her body to make sure she’d be good at child rearing. “She will give us good grandchildren!”
“Mom!” Mason blushed while Janette giggled at his expense.
“See I told you Korean girl would be good for you,” his dad stated matter of factly.
“I’m not dating her because she’s Korean,” Mason muttered sheepishly. Janette was a gigantic mess of grins, something that would probably fade the second she brought him home to meet her parents.
His parents then sat her down in the living room next to Mason and snapped a quick photo, something they’d never done for any of his past girlfriends, they hadn’t been good enough though. His parents seemed to be a fan of Janette for no other reason beyond the fact she was Korean. They showed off baby photos of him, asked questions about her and her parents, and most importantly to them, kept asking super intimate questions.
They’d been dating a few months and sure things were really working, but they weren’t married and planning kids yet. Sure he daydreamed about that stuff all the time but he’d not discussed it openly with her.
“How many kids will you have?” His dad asked like it was a certain thing.
“Uh...” Janette trailed awkwardly. “I don’t know yet.”
“He’s strong, he will give you at least three,” his mom smiled, pushing Mason ever so closer to her. She started to awkwardly chuckle while he joined her, apology written in his eyes.
She’d been in singing classes since she was seven, and his parents gawked at her while she displayed that talent, singing along beautifully to a couple songs he usually only heard come out as untrained screeching from his parent’s mouths. When he was with her he normally heard her sing in English, which was beautiful enough, but in Korean she was even better, it was the language she’d been trained in after all.
“You found an Angel, don’t screw this up,” his mom whispered to him after she’d finished singing for them. He blushed bright red at that statement and blushed even harder when they sat down to eat and his dad expressed the same sentiment.
“Good food means a good women,” he whispered into Mason’s ear, which was probably the best compliment to her cooking he could give. Mason felt flustered at that comment, he wasn’t dating Janette because she was a good cook.
She was super polite and kind, she offered to do dishes, and she kept impressing them more and more. By the time the night was up his parents were looking at her with this gaze that screamed “this is my future daughter in law and I couldn’t be happier about that.”
Problem was they seemed to focus on all the wrong stuff. He wasn’t dating Janette because she could cook, had the ability to give birth, or most importantly to them was Korean. He liked her because they got along, liked expanding their tastes and experiences, and she was a really funny and sweet girl. Sure she matched all the things his parents had been pushing him towards since the day he expressed interest in women, but those were just things that happened, he hadn’t sought them out.
“If only this guy had listened to us sooner,” his dad commented as Janette stood at the door. “I kept telling him, find a nice Korean girl and stop wasting time with everyone else.”
“Dad!” Mason exclaimed in annoyance.
“You are very pretty and will give us beautiful grandchildren one day,” his mom added before Mason shouldered his way past them and stepped through the doorframe, closing himself and Janette out in the cold.
“Sorry about them,” he apologized with a rub of the back of his head. “I think they said the word grandchild more than your name.”
“It’s fine, my parents are just as embarrassing,” Janette laughed before leaning foreword and giving him a soft kiss on the cheek. “I’ll be just as flustered when you meet them.”
“I didn’t just date you because they want me to marry a Korean girl,” Mason explained and she laughed her sweet laugh and made his heart feel all soft and mushy.
“So long as you remember I didn’t start dating you because my parents want me to marry a Korean boy,” Janette laughed before stepping forward. They kissed each other out there for a few seconds before Janette turned and walked away, shooting the occasional glance backwards as she made her way to the bus stop.
When Mason turned around he spied his parents watching him with grins through the window and sighed loudly. All his life they’d disapproved of anyone he brought over no matter how cool they were but all it took was Janette being Asian and suddenly they were big fans.