Well, wasn't he being helpful. Though silence was better than saying something stupid. She could practically feel her brothers attempting to loom behind her.
Considering Karl was built like a tank, looming was hard to accomplish. It annoyed her any way. And it was distracting, since her brothers weren't the real threat. Her 5'4 mother was.
"So. It's not enough that you've moved away for your career and missed Thanksgiving," her mother said in Korean, "but now your partner follows you here? Did you invite him?"
"No, I didn't invite him," Alyssa replied, turning to address her family in the same language, her shoulders unconsciously tense. "But now that he's here, I'm glad that you have a chance to meet him." She was not above manipulating the rules of polite company for her purposes. "He's the one I trust with my back." And she spoke the next line in English, "So he should at least be able to trust me to speak in his language. I'm out of coffee. Does anyone else want anything?"
Stony silence was her response before Richard, the youngest of her three older brothers, spoke up, "I'll take some more coffee too." He was the immediate recipient of a sharp glance from their mother, but Alyssa nodded and smiled at him with gratitude.
"OK, we'll be back." Grabbing on to Karl's arm, she made to drag him with her towards a Starbucks.