365 days earlier

Bae Joohyun has always wanted to try many things in life. If it involves learning how to take care of her clothes properly, or a new choreography just because, or bleaching her hair fully blonde… Well she’s not one to shy away from it.

That being said, Joohyun still won’t call herself a totally free-spirited, living-her-life-to-its-fullest, young woman either. She’s never travelled a lot. Neither has she any brave or wild experiences from her teenage days when things seemed simple. When it comes to certain topics she’ll still shy away, not really having the experience like most people her age. She’s not exactly a goody two shoes, or a prude, she’s just maintained her innocent mind a bit longer than most. At least that’s what she tells herself every whenever her erted friends bring something up.

Now she knows she can’t build Rome in a day, and the same goes for her generally routine life ever since she entered college. So, when she decided to shake up her life a little, she knew deep down that it would have to be something she at least can handle. Something she always wanted to do… Something like…

A sudden bump settles her out of her thoughts and almost makes her lose the book in her hand. A male voice grunts to her, but she barely manages to register what the stranger is talking about. She wants to blame it on the loud noise and the buzz of all the people, but really, she knows there is something more important than that.

The man suddenly stops talking, and his eyes gaze at her, almost judgingly. “Anatawa nihongo o hanashimasuka?”[1] his hoarse voice asks Joohyun a question she barely understands.

Yes, she wants a change in life. That is why she totally ignored doing something easy and packed up her bags to Japan on an exchange-student program for her junior year. Oh, did she mention that she barely knows anything in Japanese?

Joohyun feels the redness creep on the tip of her ears, as she feels at loss for not knowing what to say. Her translation book is in her hands, but she feels way too embarrassed to take the time to look through it awkwardly. “Gomen nasai,”[2] she replies awkwardly, and her accent probably sounding a bit off as well. She doesn’t take the time to look at his face as she bows and hurriedly escapes the scene, her suitcase barely following along. The only thing she really needs to think about is finding out where the person who would greet her was.

When she takes the time to actually look up from the ground, she notices how small the area is. She’s not really surprised; it’s her decision to live in a smaller town compared to the sizzling life that is Tokyo. In a way, it makes her experience more unique; she just hopes it will be memorable in a good way.

There’s a row of seats in front of her, and by her far left she spots the outlines of a little area with a small window and table. Most likely where people buy tickets, although there is no one there this afternoon. A bunch of posters are plastered on the wall as well, and she can barely make out the outlines of a vending machine in the distance.

Her steps guide her towards a sign that says “Kamachi station”, and she’s pretty sure she’s on the right stop. Wondering where they could be, she carefully looks around. A bit worried as she doesn’t see anyone a bit familiar, and the fact that it’s such a small area that she should be able to see them, she feels her stomach tie itself in knots. Something in clogs up then, making its way down her chest, tightening up until she can barely feel herself breathing. She has no idea what to do with herself.

“Bae Joohyun-san?” a voice suddenly fills the air, an odd accent describing her name that’s unfamiliar yet wanted.

It makes the said woman turn around instantly to see a slightly short woman standing there, her back hunched a bit and faint streaks of gray decorating her black hair. Joohyun finds it in her to smile a bit. “Nakamura Kazuko-san?” she asks back, although she feels her own voice comes out too faint for her liking.

The woman’s smile brings small wrinkles near her eyes, and there’s an odd reflection coming from the lens of her glasses, but the way her face seems to embrace Joohyun with relief makes her feel much better. “It’s great to finally meet you,” Kazuko begins excitedly while clasping her hands together. “I hope you had a pleasant flight from South-Korea,” she adds before taking a bow.

Joohyun follows shortly, still feeling a bit shaken from the previous sensation, but quickly regaining herself. “It was nice,” she begins through the words she remembers. At least she thinks that’s how she’s supposed to say it… she’s not really sure. “Please take care of me,” she adds for good measure before standing up straight.

“Let’s go to your new home, okay?” the elder woman asks as she gestures Joohyun to follow her. She does nothing more than just agree, making her way through the unfamiliar area with the shorter lady beside her.

They enter an old car that seems to belong to Kazuko herself, and as she fires up the engine and they get going, Joohyun can’t help herself for looking around. The sky seems endless in hues of light blue and softly yellow tones from the late spring afternoon, barely a cloud in sight. She takes in the tall trees that spread themselves around the small town, living with the concrete buildings and small shops around. She barely caught a glimpse of people walking around, doing their normal routine or socializing with others.

Naturally the signs are all written in Japanese, only the English translation giving her somewhat better sense of where they are.

When a couple of minutes goes by, they drive up a small hill to see more houses closely together. The hues of different colors decorate the neighborhood, some kids playing outside and a couple of old people taking care of their garden. It’s a sight Joohyun hasn’t seen in years ever since living in the heart of Seoul where tall apartment buildings and catching Pokémon on their phones seem more important.

The vehicle slows down as they near a medium sized building with beige paint, white doors and windows, and some plants by the entrance to give it more life. The first thing that comes to mind is that it’s a lot homelier than Joohyun expected it to be, almost looking like a family house compared to a dormitory. The green window panes give an odd touch to it; yet she can see herself liking it here.

As they come to a halt and Kazuko shuts down the engine, Joohyun comes to realize that this is really happening. She’s in a foreign country she’s never been before, about to learn a new language and even culture that she’s not really taken the time to learn. I mean… Korea and Japan aren’t that far from each other, it can’t be that bad, right?

She steps out with the older woman following, insisting on carrying Joohyun’s belongings even if she’s sure she can do it herself. However, she doesn’t really get much of a choice as the woman just walks towards the entrance with Joohyun awkwardly following along. Her eyes just keep on gazing around her surroundings, noticing a gated fence which seems to lead to a small garden area, a little fountain placed in the middle of the green grass and colorful hues of flowers. 

“I’m glad you chose to travel here,” Kazuko says while they stand in front of the door, before she takes the time to find the keys and open it. “Yanagawa is a nice town,” she continues and Joohyun can barely register what she’s saying, yet she does think she’s got the hang of it. Luckily for her, she doesn’t say too complicated sentences so Joohyun can follow along with the little vocabulary she has.

When they enter, the window by the hall is open to reveal a hanging decoration, making some clinging noises along the wind, right next to a small sitting area. By her left she spots a calendar hanging on the wall, several dates being marked off for special occasions. Someone even has their birthday already marked for the month. “It’s a tradition to mark your birthday here,” Kazuko began slowly as they took of their shoes. “There’s a pen on the table,” she then gestures to a small coffee table underneath. The surface is a dark brown with a couple of things scattered everywhere.

Carefully Joohyun finds a red pen and manages to go all the way until the next year, having her birthday already passed. It’s a bit tough understanding what is said, yet she does know which one translates to March and takes it from there. Writing a small notice in the best Kanji she can, throwing in a funny emoticon for good measure, she places the pen back in its mess before looking at Kazuko again.

The elder woman smiles just a bit before guiding Joohyun around the house to show her the dining area, where already a couple of people were socializing on the wooden tables. She feels some of their eyes land on her, but she tries to ignore them. Further down there’s a couple of restrooms, followed by a living room at the end of the hall. Inside there’s nothing much; just a large sofa, some chairs, a TV and other technological items. The coming air flutters through the open windows, making the curtains sway with the wind above another area that seems to work as a small library with bookshelves and a large table with chairs.

She is then guided up a staircase to find another hall covered with doors to reveal the rooms. A blue and white rug stretches itself along the narrow and long hall, only leaving some of the dark floor visible. “Here is your room,” Kazuko says as they end up by the last door in the hall, closest to the big window at the end. “You’ll be sharing it with another student,” she informs vaguely.

It’s not like Joohyun thought she was going to get her own room, not with the cheap price she had to pay, but she still feels that it’s odd that she has no idea who she’s going to share a room with. “Who am I sharing a room with, Kazuko-san?” she feels it in her to ask, especially as there’s only a number on the blue door and not any names.

As the older woman finds the keys and unlocks it, she looks at Joohyun momentarily. “She’s a new student too, who will arrive later today,” she begins as she opens the door. “I don’t remember her name, but she’s from Osaka I think,” she concludes about her roommate there. Joohyun only nods, looking inside to see a small room with two neatly made beds and two small dressers cramped together, barely leaving space for a desk by another window that separates the beds. She takes in the light walls that are left bare, only a simple picture of a colorful sunset placed on the right side of the room. It’s small, but she can see it becoming a bit cozy. Guess it depends on who she’s rooming with.

Kazuko sets her baggage down before looking over at Joohyun. “Well, Joohyun-san, I’ll be downstairs if you need anything,” she says a bit excitedly. For a moment Joohyun wonders if she’s always that bright, but doesn’t bother to question it. At last she gets a set of keys, one to the door downstairs and one to the room she’s staying it. Along with that is some basic information, which Kazuko seems to explain to her as carefully as possible. It’s a bit slow, but Joohyun is still grateful that the woman tries to make everything understandable. “Dinner will be served in fifteen minutes,” she ends it there with another smile before bidding goodbye and exiting the room.

As she finds some time to unpack a portion of her belongings to the right-hand drawer, she sets the rest aside for later, and just decides on crashing her entire body onto the bed. “Dibs for this one,” she says loudly to herself while stretching out her arms, the clean sheets cool to the touch, yet extremely comfortable towards her tired body.

The sun glows on her just a bit, luckily having some of the curtains cover for her face so she doesn’t get blind in the process of just lazing herself. The temptation to close her eyes and fall asleep is huge, but the loud grumble in her stomach suggests that she probably should eat something first.

Her steps guide her down to the dining area again, a bit more people present than before. She looks at the people, many around her age more or less, sitting in their respective groups and conversing with each other. Some seemed to be from the country, while others had tanner or lighter skin and different features altogether. There is not a single familiar face, not that she expects it, but the realization puts her in a bit of anxiousness. She has no idea where to sit, and there isn’t a single unoccupied table, so sitting alone is not an option either.

There’s a long table with different types of utensils and plates, and beside it is a small variation of foods and drinks. For her hungry stomach, the sight seems perfect and it makes almost water. Luckily enough the sight of foods distracts her from the sheer dilemma of figuring out where the hell she can sit. At least that thought can take a small break, as she follows the other students to stand in line so she can get something to eat.

When she finally grabs a plate with a pair of chopsticks, she notices a girl with light hair tied in a braid. Her eyes seem to look down at the table, concentrating on what she wants, but soon enough her gaze goes up to look at Joohyun a bit confusedly. “Is there something wrong?” the stranger asks a bit sudden, and it makes Joohyun nearly jump before looking away a bit.

Joohyun bows slightly, simply stating a short apology again. Now she’s prepared to learn Japanese, but she still feels out of place having to use it on an everyday basis compared to her own native tongue. It’s really tough trying to think of what she’s going to say.

Then she hears a short chuckle. “I’m just messing around,” the girl replies, and Joohyun thinks she understood it correctly. It’s not that she has her translate book with her so she can check either. “I’m Momo,” she greets her then and Joohyun at least understands that.

A bit surprised, Joohyun returns the gesture and with her own name, as she finds herself awkwardly picking up some rice from the trays on the table. A million sentences and words travel through her head; she just doesn’t know how to put them in the right order. “So…” awkwardly escapes her lips. The sound comes out way before she can prepare something. “… How old are you?” is the only question she can think of.

Joohyun tries to ease the awkwardness between them, wanting to get to know the person she’s standing by better. Guess there’s no better time than now to get friends of some sort, or at least find somebody to sit with.

Momo looks at her a bit confused, and for a moment her lips almost seem to frown. Time passes. A sigh escapes her lips before she shakes her head a little. “Probably not that much older than you,” she states vaguely as he suddenly looks away.

Joohyun wants to ask more specifically, but instead Momo just excused herself and left, leaving Joohyun to stand there awkwardly. “Well that went great,” Joohyun says to herself while slowly feeling herself pout. “I don’t know what I did…?” she asks herself again, at least in her native tongue, while drastically sighing and looking down at her tray of food.

“Probably because asking for someone’s age isn’t really the first thing you talk about,” a sudden voice enters. However, the voice in itself doesn’t surprise her; it’s more the language it’s in.

It causes Joohyun to look around quickly, almost making her dizzy, to see a pair of dark jeans. She lets her gaze go upwards until she spots a white, loose shirt and strands of dark hair surrounding it. A pair of almond shape eyes, dark with a playful gaze, looks back at her. “I thought you at least would have figured out that, pabo.”

It takes a moment for Joohyun to feel a surprised smile grace her lips. “You speak Korean!” she said, although not as loudly as she wanted it to sound.  She even decides to ignore the small insult she got.

The girl shrugs softly, the long length of her hair falling behind her shoulders. “I guess that’s the benefits of a Korean father and a Japanese mother,” she states as she fills up something on her plate and gracefully walks a couple of steps away. “You still got a change to sit with us, you know,” the girl continues before casually walking to the table where a couple of girls were sitting. Momo is apparently one of them, as the mystery girl casually lets her lean body take a seat next to her.

She’s not really sure if she should take that offer or not. It’s nice to have the option, and there is a vacant seat next to the Korean-speaking girl that’s very pretty (not that she’s going to admit that out loud). Yet she’s a bit unsure if she wants to risk the awkwardness, especially since Joohyun apparently said something that’s apparently not appropriate. Maybe Korean and Japanese culture is not that alike after all… She should’ve really paid more attention to history back in school when she still had it.

A moment passes and she doesn’t really see anywhere else to sit. There’s a table with some guys who honestly seem a bit scary, one of them way taller than the other with a bored look. She looks around to see another group more excited looking down their phones than at each other, and some other people who doesn’t seem all too welcoming.

Accepting the fact that this might become awkward, she takes a chance and walks towards the table and shyly stands a couple of feet away from everybody.

It takes a moment before one of the girls look up to notice her, a small smile appearing on her face. She says something in Japanese too, and this time Joohyun tries to think of what it might mean, yet she comes short.

“She’s asking if you want to sit with us,” the dark brunette girl suddenly interjects as Joohyun is still standing there. She just gazes at her a bit, watching her right hand holding onto a pen that’s placed upon a small notebook, writing something down that Joohyun can’t read.

She lets her gaze stay there before looking at the four other girls who sit there, and she realizes she abruptly must have interrupted their conversation.

Not wanting to look like an idiot, Joohyun finds herself nodding before slowly sitting on the chair next to her. Placing her tray on the table, she again feels all eyes on her, and she has no idea on what to say or do in this situation. “I’m Bae Joohyun,” she introduces herself shortly, trying to fill the sudden silence with something.

The girl next to her takes it on her to introduce each person. Soon she comes to learn that the one with the yellow beanie is Mina, the blond one is named Sana, and Momo she already knew of who just gave her an awkward smile. Then there’s the brunette who caught her gaze, turning around to Joohyun with a short smile. “And I’m Kang Seulgi,” she finishes there. “You should be able to remember that, I hope,” she adds in Korean again while the other girls seem a bit confused.

As the conversation goes back to whatever they were talking about, Joohyun not being able to understand everything of course, she realizes that they seem less scary now. They appear to joke around a lot and playfully smack each other, something only close friends do. Some are louder than others, but it’s alright she supposes as she eats and just observes the girls she’s sitting with.

Then she feels their gaze draw back to her again. Mina asks her something, that much Joohyun can tell by the way she’s speaking, but she’s saying it so quickly that she can’t really understand what she’s saying.

Again, Seulgi comes to the rescue. “Where are you from?” she translates for her.

Joohyun has a feeling there’s more to it than just that, she doesn’t bother asking about it. “I just came from Korea,” she says and she can still hear how off her accent is. The other girls don’t seem to mind all too much, luckily for her, although she wonders if Seulgi might feel Joohyun is a bit dumb for not knowing enough to maintain a whole conversation.

Great, she’s already being a burden before a day has passed.

When they finish eating and Joohyun lets her poor Japanese out to them, she wants nothing more than to just crawl into bed and hope she doesn’t have to speak for the next hundred years. Yet she knows it’s not going to be that easy of course.

As she bids goodbye to the other girls, and apparently, Mina and Sana are very keen on getting her to join something (was it karaoke? She’s not too sure because they speak way too fast for her to understand). However, she’s honestly more keen on lying around in her new bed.

They’re about to part ways, but that’s before a small shout of her name echoes through the hall. She turns around to see Seulgi looking at her, small smile on her face as her hands are in her pocket. “Don’t lock the door,” she suddenly says, much to Joohyun’s confusion. “I don’t have the key to the room upstairs yet,” Seulgi adds with a mysterious gaze, one that makes Joohyun feel weird and almost cold and warm inside for some reason. She’s not about to admit that out loud either.

“You’re my roommate?” Joohyun asks dumbly then, although probably knowing from what she said that it’s true. She’s not sure how she’s supposed to feel about having that gorgeous girl there almost 24/7.

Joohyun stands there watching Seulgi chuckle a bit, her nose crinkling ever so slightly. The sun that comes from the open door that leads to the outside, creates a soft glow which makes her hair almost appear lighter. “Benefits with always getting to share a room with the new kids,” she adds, a wink at that, before turning around to follow the rest of the girls outside.

There’s a small pitter patter going on that’s more apparent than usual, one that Joohyun can’t remember feeling before. It’s one that starts from her legs, all the way to her stomach and up to with a tingly feeling, one that almost makes her smile for no reason.

Months later she comes to learn that it’s a sign of something she’s still going to remember, and certainly will awake other feelings that are much more intense than this. It makes her ask herself many questions, especially about wondering if everything was ever real. She seems to ask herself that a time or two once in a while. Wondering if it’s something she could call love when all she could do was wait for an answer.

Yet in the present she just nods a bit before walking upstairs, not really nodding to anything in particular, while feeling a bit lighter. With that she enters the blue door to their shared room, leaving the door unlocked, and a pleasant feeling in her veins.