"Ohayo gozaimasu."

Joonmyeon lifted his head and saw an old lady bowing to him. He quickly returned the bow and replied her words.

"Annyeo -- aniyo! Ah ..., o, ohayo' gozaimasu!"

The old lady smiled at him, making Joonmyeon relaxed. He continued walking out of his apartment complex and bumped someone in the process.

"Ow!"

He had lost his balance, but a strong hand gripped his arm and prevented him from falling. He quickly erected himself and saw the face that had been accompanying him for the last one month.

"Ohayo' gozaimasu, Sometani-san."

"Ohayo gozaimasu, Kimu-san."

His name was spelled wrong, again. It was supposed to be "Kim", not "Kimu". Nonetheless, Joonmyeon smiled. He was in Japan and it was usual for people to spell his name a bit incorrectly, Japanese language had no hanging consonant in the end anyway.

"Your Japanese is getting better, Kimu-san. Just remember that ohayo doesn't get a stress in the end. It's ohayo, not ohayo'."

Joonmyeon nodded as he listened to the advice spoken in heavily accented Korean by Sometani-san.

"Hai. I am sorry for saying it wrong. I still have to learn more. Thank you for pointing my mistake, hyung, no, I mean, Sometani-san."

The boy who was slightly older and taller than Joonmyeon chuckled. He patted Joonmyeon's back, smiling in understanding.

"Japanese can be a bit hard sometimes, Kimu-san, demo, just take your time to study, will you? It will come off naturally as you keep practicing and speaking it all the time. And yes, you can call me hyung if you want to. Let's just drop the honorifics, we have been good friends already. However, since you are in Japan and you are in your practice time, call me Shouta-niisan or simply Oniisan as a replacement for hyung, okay?"

Joonmyeon smiled and nodded.

"Hai, Oniisan."

"Ne, kimi wa kawaii zo! And can I call you Jun-kun? Joonmyeon is a bit hard for Japanese to pronounce."

"Sure, sure! No worries."

Shouta-niisan smiled. They both continued their journey to their college.

*   *   *

He had been living in Japan for a month now. And still, his Japanese was still pretty basic, if it was not beginner. He did get a preparatory course since the second day he arrived at Kyoto, the city he was living in now. Still, Joonmyeon was never too good with languages. He could handle simple conversation with English, but beside that, his language skill was always deemed poorly.

Luckily, there was a student assigned to be his buddy during his study time in Japan. His name was Sometani Shouta. The same as Joonmyeon, he was a first year student in Joonmyeon's college. They lived in the same apartment complex and they even shared the same class. He was from Kansai, a far part of Japan, where he lived in farm and this was his first time living far from home. They were similar in many ways.

Since the first time he met him, Joonmyeon had taken an instant liking to the kind boy. He smiled at Joonmyeon a lot and was always trying to start a conversation with the foreigner. He spoke fluent Korean, though heavily accented by Japanese, as his grandpa was a Korean, and Joonmyeon couldn't feel more blessed than that. His Japanese still and he relied much of his adjustment processes on Shouta. Sometimes, Joonmyeon thought that he was burdening Shouta too much. However, never once Shouta complained. He was always very helpful to Joonmyeon, always accompanying Joonmyeon anywhere and helping him practicing his Japanese as much as possible. Oniisan, which means hyung in Japanese, was beyond nice to him. When Joonmyeon asked him why he had been so kind to him, Joonmyeon was shocked to hear the answer.

"I used to have a younger brother, but he passed when we were just a child. Looking at you, I couldn't help but being reminded of him. You look really alike him. I almost thought you were he when I first met you, if I didn't remember that he had been cremated long time ago."

It touched Joonmyeon to the core. Since that time, he promised to be a good friend for Shouta. He would never be able to replace his brother, but to know that his presence made that kind boy happy indeed made Joonmyeon's heart was not longing to his home too much, for he had found a figure of an older brother he had never had.

October 4, 2014

I am really, really sorry for the long update. I was getting involved too much with my other stories. And I know this chap is so short, my apology. I will try to post more and more quickly. Give some comment on this part. :)

Schandelierre