LIGHTNOVELONLINE chapter 8
7. Aki, 10 years old, starting to develop a bit of possessiveness…? (2)
“Happy~ birthday~ to you~. Happy~ birthday~ to you~. Happy birthday, dear Jaehyun, happy~ birthday~ to you~!”
A song that every Korean would have heard. As soon as the song “Happy Birthday” flowed from the children’s mouths, my classmates and I clapped our hands in unison to celebrate Jaehyun’s birthday.
“Jaehyun, happy birthday!”
“Congratulations, Nam Jaehyun~!”
“Here, take it, Jaehyun.”
“Thanks! But Woojoo, what’s this?”
“If you’re curious, open it. I prepared something you’ll like.”
“Oh, really? As expected of Joo Woojoo~”
“…….”
However, there were some who seemed completely uninterested in Jaehyun’s birthday.
“What is it? I’m curious, open it!”
“It looks like a New Year’s money envelope, isn’t it money?”
“Wait a minute……. Oh? Isn’t this that thing? That, Google gift card!”
“That’s right. It’s a 30,000 won one. Jaehyun, you said you wanted this, right?”
“Wow, my mom absolutely refused to buy this for me! Woojoo, thank you so much…!”
“…….”
The person I’m talking about is Aki, who is staring at me intently, ignoring whatever others are saying.
Aki, with cheeks puffed up like a squirrel preparing for winter, looked at me and mouthed some words without making a sound.
[Is this a tonkatsu restaurant, Uju~chan……?]
‘……Among the dishes Jaehyun’s mother prepared, there is tonkatsu.’
If I said that, Aki would really get angry.
Though still young, I had enough sense to just mouth the words to Aki.
[Aki, can you please go along with the mood right now?]
[…….]
[……Aki?]
“──Watashi (I), need to go to the bathroom.”
“Jaehyun, where is the bathroom?”
“There’s one on the second floor and one on the first floor, but you can’t use the one on the second floor. You’ll see it right away if you go down to the first floor.”
“Okay. Did you hear that, Aki? If you want to use the bathroom, you have to go to the first floor.”
[Uju~chan, follow me.]
[Huh? Why?]
“…….”
“……Jaehyun, I need to go to the bathroom too.”
“Huh? Okay, go ahead~”
Aki’s expression was unusual, so I stood up without thinking.
──Creak.
“Hey, Aki?”
“……”
I closed the door behind me, leaving Jaehyun and his friends, and tried to talk to Aki, but there was no response.
Aki, who seemed to barely acknowledge my words, walked straight down to the first floor, not even glancing towards the bathroom, and headed directly to the front door.
Following Aki, I wondered if he had mistaken the place.
“Where are my shoes…?”
Hearing Aki’s barely audible muttering, my thoughts changed abruptly.
‘Wait, is he trying to go home…?!’
“Wait! Aki, where are you going?”
I quickly reached out and grabbed Aki’s wrist as he searched the floor for his shoes.
“Let go, I’m going home.”
“You’re leaving now? Jaehyun’s birthday party isn’t over yet.”
“I don’t care, I just want to leave.”
Aki tried to shake off my hand, not just with words but with actions.
Maybe it was my imagination, but the force he used to shake me off was quite weak. Reflexively, I held on tight and spoke urgently.
“Is it because I brought you to Jaehyun’s house without saying anything? Are you mad?”
“……”
Aki’s movements suddenly stopped.
I thought Aki hesitated because I hit the mark.
“……It’s not like that.”
“Then? Why are you suddenly trying to go home?”
“Do you really not know, Uju-chan…?”
“Yeah, I really don’t know. Can you tell me?”
However, after hearing Aki’s next words, I realized it wasn’t like that.
“Aki is……”
“Yeah, Aki is?”
“Uju-chan, I’m angry because you lied to me…!”
Aki looked up at me with wide eyes.
Aki’s blue eyes, slightly wet and trembling, held deep sorrow.
In that moment, an uneasy premonition arose in my heart: ‘If I leave it like this, won’t Aki end up hating me?’
So, my heart sank, and I quickly took a step towards Aki.
“I didn’t mean to deceive you. I just…”
“You already did. Uju-chan is a liar.”
“…….”
A liar.
To some, it might be a trivial word, but to me at that time, it was quite a shock.
And for good reason, Aki was a girl who had never said a harsh word to me from the moment we first met until this moment, four years later.
Whenever she saw me, she would always smile, play happily with me, teach each other Korean and Japanese, play together in the playground, play house, and even kiss. Aki was closer to me than any friend I knew.
When Aki looked at me with resentment and called me a ‘liar,’ I was so shocked that I stuttered.
“N-no, Aki. It’s not like that…”
“Aki hates liars.”
“…!”
“…Sayonara (goodbye), Uju-chan.”
Aki turned her back on me.
She tried to shake off my arm, but her strength was very weak. At that moment, I didn’t notice anything strange. No, it would be more accurate to say I didn’t have time to notice. I was extremely flustered because it was the first time I had seen Aki like this.
I just thought, ‘It’s a relief that Aki is weaker than me,’ and quickly grabbed her wrist tightly.
“Wait, Aki! Listen to me…!”
“…What?”
“First of all… I’m sorry for deceiving you. Really, truly sorry. But I didn’t deceive you to make fun of you. I just wanted to… I just wanted to help you make more friends. Really.”
“Friends…?”
“Yes, friends.”
“…”
Aki started to look up at me, trying to discern if my words were sincere, her eyes trembling slightly with confusion.
With an unreadable expression, Aki observed my face for about five seconds.
“Hey, Uju-chan…?”
“Y-yes?”
“Aki doesn’t need friends. …As long as I have you, Uju-chan.”
She said something I never expected.
‘…You don’t need friends? No, why?’
Because of that, I was engulfed in a feeling as if I had been hit on the head with a hammer… I stood still, barely managing to turn my head and think about it.
The reason why Aki said he doesn’t need friends.
Then, a hypothesis quickly emerged.
‘Ah, maybe Aki is shy. Is it hard for him to approach others first, so making friends is difficult?’
“Aki, is it hard for you to make friends? If that’s the case, tell me. I’ll approach them first…”
“That’s not it. I just don’t like it.”
“Huh? …Why?”
“Uju-chan. Think about it. What would happen if Aki made friends?”
“I don’t know. What would happen?”
“If Aki made friends, they would also become friends with Uju-chan, right? Because Uju-chan and I are close. A friend of a friend is a friend.”
“Yeah, that’s true.”
“…Aki doesn’t like that.”
“Huh? What don’t you like?”
“I don’t like my friends becoming friends with Uju-chan. …Uju-chan is handsome, so my friends would probably like Uju-chan too.”
“…”
For a moment, I was at a loss for words.
The reason Aki doesn’t make proper friends is because of me.
I was quite dizzy, thinking it must be due to his own complex or the surrounding environment, or both.
‘…Because he doesn’t want his friends to become friends with me?’
Eliminating potential competitors, from a certain perspective, might be the right choice, but still…
It was such an unimaginable reason that I opened and closed my lips like a fool before finally speaking.
“Aki, isn’t that going too far? I’m not that good-looking…”
“No, Uju~chan is handsome. Just yesterday, someone left food in Uju~chan’s desk drawer.”
“Really? When? I didn’t see it.”
“Of course, Uju~chan wouldn’t have seen it. Aki cleaned it up as soon as I saw it.”
“Huh? Why did you clean it up, Aki?”
“…What?”
Aki’s shoulders trembled slightly.
With a look of having made a slip of the tongue, she hesitated, then started to stammer as if a sudden excuse had come to mind.
“Ah, it was something Aki liked. You know, Uju~chan, the English chocolate with English writing on the wrapper…!”
“English chocolate? Oh, the one in the black plastic wrap?”
“Yes! That one, Aki likes it so much that I ate it… Is that okay?”
“Of course, it’s okay! Aki can eat anything I receive. I don’t like chocolate anyway. Should I give it to you if I get more later?”
Giving someone else’s gift to another person is something that shouldn’t be done out of courtesy, but at that time, I was willing to do anything to appease Aki. I would have agreed to any request, not just bringing food.
“No, from now on, should I give you all the food gifts I receive? You like sweets, Aki.”
“…Yes. Just give me the ones that seem okay after I check them first.”
“Alright, let’s do that then.”
I let go of Aki’s wrist with a bright smile.
Aki looked up at me blankly, then, as if trying to hide her slightly flushed cheeks, she belatedly cleared her throat and fiddled with her wrist.
“Ahem…! …But, Uju-chan. I’m still not over my anger, you know?”
“Ah, I’m sorry… Aki, what should I do to make you forgive me?”
“…Promise me.”
“Promise? What kind of promise?”
Aki stretched out her right hand and slightly extended her pinky finger.
“Uju-chan, are you going to lie to me again?”
“Huh? No, never!”
“Uh-huh, so promise. I will never lie to Aki again.”
“Got it. I will never lie to Aki again!”
I quickly intertwined my pinky finger with Aki’s. And just as I was about to press our thumbs together.
“…Wait a minute! There’s still one more thing.”
“What is it?”
“Later on… when Uju-chan and I grow up a little more.”
“Yeah, when we grow up a little more?”
“Absolutely, abso~lutely~! We, we’ll get married…! Uju-chan and I…”
“….”
I looked down at Aki quietly.
Aki, as if feeling burdened by my gaze, slightly blushed and averted her eyes.
‘…Marry Aki?’
As I mentioned earlier, at that time, I was willing to do anything to make Aki forgive me.
“Alright! Let’s get married. You and me, Aki.”
“Huh, really…?”
“Yeah, really. But in return, Aki, you have to promise me one thing. Promise me you’ll make lots of friends from now on, okay?”
With a slight condition attached, we quickly intertwined our fingers to make a promise and even pressed our thumbs together to seal it.
“There, it’s sealed. Now we’ve promised each other.”
“…Ah.”
“Since we promised, you’re not mad anymore, right?”
“Yeah, I’m not mad anymore…”
“Then let’s go up to the second floor. The others must be waiting.”
Hearing that Aki wasn’t mad anymore, I felt a sense of pride and grabbed Aki’s hand with a smile.
Then, understanding my sincerity, Aki also smiled brightly and followed me.
As we were going up to the second floor holding hands, a question suddenly crossed my mind.
‘But, if Aki was planning to go home, why did she come down to the first floor with me instead of sneaking out?’
“Hey, Aki.”
“Yeah, Woojoo~chan. What is it?”
‘No, if I bring it up again, she’ll get mad, right?’
“It’s nothing. Let’s go!”
…At that time, I didn’t know.
That this promise.
No, that Aki pretending to be mad and bringing me down to the first floor itself was…
“……Huh.”
It was all part of her grand plan for the future…….