chapter 7
6. Aki, 10 years old, starting to develop a slight possessiveness…? (1)
Four years later, after Aki and I started attending the same elementary school.
Spring of the year we became third graders.
It was the third week since the new school year had begun.
When I was young, that is, when I was 10 years old, I was getting ready to go home after the end of the day. My classmate and friend from the same kindergarten, Jaehyun, approached me.
“Joo Wooju, you know we’re meeting at my house after school today, right?”
“Yeah, I know. We’re supposed to be there by 4 PM, right?”
“Yeah, that’s right. You remembered?”
“Of course. How could I forget a friend’s birthday?”
“Oh, as expected of Joo Wooju. ……Ah, but Wooju.”
“Yeah, what?”
“What about what I asked you before? About bringing your girlfriend.”
“Girlfriend? Oh, you mean Aki?”
When I asked again, unsure, Jaehyun smiled as if to confirm he was talking about Aki.
I shook my head at Jaehyun.
“She’s not my girlfriend…”
“Anyway, is she coming? She’s coming with us today, right?”
“No. I don’t think so.”
“What? Why, why?”
“I asked her casually last time, and she said no. She doesn’t want to go to a stranger’s house.”
“A stranger…?”
Jaehyun stammered, as if he was quite shocked. From Jaehyun’s perspective, he went to the same kindergarten as Aki, and they were even in the same class, so it must have felt strange to be treated like a stranger.
Actually, back then, Aki tended to ignore everyone except me…
Jaehyun, who had no way of knowing that, or perhaps vaguely knew but didn’t want to admit it, came closer to me.
“Hey, hey, what do we do, what do we do?”
“I can’t do anything about it, so I guess I’ll just go to your house alone?”
“No, no! That won’t do. I’ve already told everyone that you and she are coming to my house!”
“What? Why did you say that when you weren’t sure?”
“Why do you think? So more girls would come! All the girls want to be friends with Aki…!”
Jaehyun, who had always been honest about his desires, both as a child and now, grabbed my shoulders with both hands.
“Joo Woojoo. No, Woojoo! As a friend, I’m asking you. Can you bring her today?”
“Well? It’s not like I can bring her just because I want to…”
“You’re his boyfriend. Every time we ask you to hang out with us, you just say sorry and only hang out with him! So if you ask him, he’ll listen to you, right?”
“Um, that’s not really the case….”
The kids don’t know, but Aki is quite stubborn.
When a girl and a boy play together, usually the boy leads, but in reality, it’s the opposite. Even when I suggest playing with other kids, he only wants to play with me.
How should I explain this to Jaehyun so he can understand? I was pondering this when I heard a familiar voice from afar.
“Uju~chan!”
A girl who, after four years of continued interaction, had become so close that she no longer called me with the formal “san” but with the more intimate “chan.”
The nickname, familiar yet slightly strange, made me turn around, and there was Aki, standing beside me as expected.
“School’s over, so let’s go home!”
Aki’s house moved two years ago and is now quite close to mine. It’s about a 10-minute walk. So we go to and from school together every day, and today, as usual, Aki came to my seat to go home with me.
Jaehyun seemed to think this was his chance, as he slowly moved back and tapped me on the back.
“…Hey, Joo Uju!”
He didn’t say anything, but it was clear he wanted me to ask again.
“Um….”
It probably won’t work, but should I try asking anyway?
With that mindset, I naturally started speaking as I stood up.
“Okay, let’s go. But Aki, today is Jaehyun’s birthday.”
“Jaehyun? Who’s that?”
“Nam Jaehyun. The friend who went to the same kindergarten as us, remember?”
“Oh, Nam Jaehyun-san? Yeah, I know him!”
“He’s just a kid.”
“Oh, I see. Nam Jaehyun-san, happy birthday!”
At that time, Aki often used both Korean and Japanese interchangeably. Probably because he spoke Korean at school and Japanese at home, it seemed. Now it’s a bit less, but when he was younger, he was in a state often described as ‘Korean patch gone wrong.’
He mixed honorifics and casual speech, couldn’t distinguish between homonyms, and said strange things. Sometimes he would mumble very quickly in Japanese, which would fluster me, but he was fundamentally polite and a good kid because he had received good home education.
However.
“Yeah, thanks! But Aki, by any chance today…”
“……Fujiwara-san.”
“Huh, what did you say?”
There was only one situation where Aki would become firm.
That was when someone he wasn’t close to called him casually.
As I mentioned earlier, Japan has a unique naming culture called ‘Yobisute,’ which, simply put, means that there are honorifics used when addressing someone you’re not close to and different ones for someone you are close to. It’s considered basic etiquette.
Ignoring that and calling someone by their name alone, like I did, or approaching them casually, would make Aki serious.
“Nam Jaehyun-san and I are not close, so please call me Fujiwara-san.”
“Oh, sorry…”
“……”
Whenever Aki, who always smiled brightly, became serious just because someone called him by his name, I would suddenly think.
‘He dislikes it so much when someone he’s not close to acts rudely, so why didn’t he act like that when he first met me?’
That question never really got answered even as we grew older, but anyway.
“Fujiwara-san, there’s a birthday party at my house today. If you’re free, would you like to come-“
“I’m sorry. I already have plans with Uju-chan today. If there’s another opportunity, I’ll come.”
“Huh, the next one is in a year…?”
“Uju~chan, let’s go.”
Aki flatly rejected Jaehyun’s proposal, linked arms with me as I awkwardly stood up, and promptly left the classroom.
-Hey, look at that.
-They’re going together again?
-Aren’t Uju and that kid dating?
In the third grade of elementary school, when it was common to tease boys and girls just for playing together, Aki boldly linked arms with me, drawing the attention of the entire class, but she didn’t care at all.
I don’t know whether to call her bold, reckless, or maybe both.
Anyway, half-dragged by Aki, I walked while cautiously glancing around.
“Hey, Aki.”
As soon as we entered a less crowded path, I quickly spoke up.
“Yeah, yeah, what?”
“Why don’t you play with other kids?”
I asked because I was worried about Aki.
The truth is, Aki hardly played with anyone other than me.
When I was around, she would at least engage in small talk because I was a bridge, but without me, Aki was like an isolated island. You could tell just by the way she treated Jaehyun.
Aki had pretty hair and a cute face, so if she just acted a little more friendly, everyone would surely want to befriend her. But she built walls and didn’t make other friends, which was both unfortunate and pitiful.
The main reason, though, was something Aki’s father had told me.
“Uju-kun, please be a good friend to our Aki.”
Four years ago, in front of Aki, her father had earnestly asked me this favor.
The words of that man, who was a bit strict but definitely a good father, still lingered in my mind, and that’s why I wanted to be a good friend to Aki.
Not only did I want to be a good friend, but I also hoped there would be more friends like me.
“Do other kids dislike you? If that’s the case, I can…”
“No, I don’t like other friends except for you, Woojoo~chan.”
But Aki, whether he knew my feelings or not, shook his head as if he didn’t want to make other friends.
“Huh? Why?”
“Because I’m going to marry you, Woojoo~chan, in the future.”
“……”
And on top of that, he would go around declaring things that we hadn’t agreed upon, but I let it slide since Aki wasn’t yet fluent in Korean.
But that’s that, and this is this.
As Aki stubbornly refused to make friends other than me, a sense of unease began to grow in my heart.
‘…What if Aki ends up with no friends at all?’
In the first and second grades, we didn’t know anything and were still adjusting, so we all got along well enough. But by the third grade, when we had some discernment, kids tended to play only with their own groups.
However, because I had been too indulgent, Aki was now in a state where he didn’t belong to any group.
If this continued, he might spend the remaining year, or even the next few years, without any friends other than me.
‘…That can’t happen.’
That must not happen. Because Aki’s father had asked me for a favor.
Sincerely thinking that, I walked alongside Aki, pondering a way.
A way for Aki to blend in with the other kids in the class all at once.
“Woojoo~chan, why aren’t you answering? Don’t you want to marry me, Woojoo~chan?”
“Huh? Ah, no, it’s not that….”
“So you’re gonna get married? You will, right?”
“Um, well, that’s…”
‘……Huh?’
Something flashed through my mind, mid-thought.
–Marriage.
What do you need to get married?
You need guests.
Guests are your and the groom’s friends.
Which means, wouldn’t it work if I just used my friends…?
“…..Aki.”
I stopped walking.
“Yeah, what is it? Getting married?”
“No, not that. Wanna go eat some pork cutlet together?”
And then, using pork cutlet as bait, I started gently coaxing Aki.
“Ah, pork cutlet? You and Woo-joo~chan?”
“Yeah, how about it?”
“Yay~! I wanna go eat pork cutlet with Woo-joo~chan!”
“Then, let’s stop by your place first and drop off your bag, okay?”
“Okay okay, I got it! Pork cutlet, pork cutlet with Woo-joo~chan~”
“…….”
‘……Sorry, Aki.’
Actually, we’re not going to eat tonkatsu.
But this is all for you, Aki, so you can understand, right……?