Time was either a blessing or a curse to mankind, depending on how an individual made the best or worst of whatever time they had. One could gain as much as they could lose because of time itself, even if all one did was just stand and watch their life pass them by.

Kyungsoo always had a linear path he had planned to be the best for himself in life. It was surviving and living merely by flowing on the course of time while maintaining ideals such as working hard, persevering and being diligent throughout.

Kyungsoo preferred the passive way of living and letting things be as he made the supposedly appropriate decisions whenever a fork in life came along. There was nothing extraordinary and wonderful about his life and Kyungsoo didn’t mind it the least bit, or at least he used to feel that way.

 

 

Kyungsoo likened his life as walking along the shore of a beach, that was beside a wavy and rippling sea that was stormier and turbulent further out there. It was safe and calm on the sandy shore but there was nothing remarkable about it.

But beyond what he could see from the horizon at the point where the blue sea and the blue sky met, were stories of a new land that was filled with joy, everything remarkable and truly amazing.

One by one, Kyungsoo would see the people he knew jump into that sea and brave the growingly treacherous waters in search of that promised new land to never return to the shore again.

Kyungsoo did wonder if the people never returned because life on that new land was as true as the tales, or because they had failed and perished along the way.

 

 

Chanyeol was one of those people who dived into the sea but Kyungsoo would still remain on those calm familiar shores, year after year and time after time.

Kyungsoo never thought that he’d be testing the waters, leaving his calm shore and considering of chasing that promised land too. Not until he was reunited with Chanyeol again.

But to say that it was all because of Chanyeol wouldn’t have been accurate either. Kyungsoo always had those thoughts; the curiosity, the “what-ifs” and the sudden thrill to chase something new that was merely only repressed until Chanyeol came along again.

 

 

As for Chanyeol, the journey he undertook was not an easy one, and he knew and was very well prepared to brave through it.

It hurt but no one said it was going to be easy, anyway.

There were the easy parts but there were also the hard parts. There were even times where he felt like he was drowning, sinking beneath the waters, feeling the immense pressure of water all around him and feeling like he would never rise to the surface ever again.

But Chanyeol kept swimming and kept trying. Maybe even at some point, Chanyeol felt like he had made the wrong choice and that the promised land was nothing but a tale.

There also came a time when Chanyeol felt too sore and too tired to carry on, feeling like he should just stop and let the sea take its toll on him. He couldn’t turn back either now. The journey to return to the shore he had come from, was even further than the supposed promised land.

When Chanyeol was on that verge of giving up, Chanyeol instead met Kyungsoo again on his own journey to the same path to that promised land.

 

While Chanyeol’s belief in the supposed promised land was slowly diminishing the further they got, he continued trying and going further with Kyungsoo. If not for himself, it was for Kyungsoo.

Because even if the promised land was never real, to begin with, Chanyeol enjoyed the journey despite how hard it was because Kyungsoo was alongside him now.

That itself would have made everything worthwhile.

 

 

 

 

Three years and six months had passed since the day that Kyungsoo made the decision that he would leave the calm shores and prepare to join Chanyeol on the journey to their promised land.

Forty-two months since the day Kyungsoo took an entire month to decide whether he should stay or leave to move to Japan.

From then on, it took almost a full year for Kyungsoo to arrange everything for his move. There were the countless trips, back and forth to meet immigration lawyers and agents to finally get his visa approved.

Kyungsoo had to pass strict background checks, tender his resignation, wait for his apartment lease to end, raise enough money for his own and sell everything he owned that he couldn’t bring along with him.

Then there was also the hard part, which was letting everyone he knew that he was permanently moving to Japan to be with an old friend whom he hadn’t met in over a decade until only recently.

 

 

It sounded crazy and something unlike of Kyungsoo to do so. After all, Kyungsoo was supposed to be the poster child of routine and normality to everyone that knew him.

There were also subtle non-direct questions, nudges and hints pointed at him if he and Chanyeol were more than just friends. Kyungsoo continued assuring those who asked that they were just really good friends indeed.

While that itself wasn’t a lie, Kyungsoo was wise enough to know that their society wasn’t ready yet for the whole truth.

That day would come one day and Kyungsoo would deal with it accordingly when the time came.

 

 

Once the visa was approved and Kyungsoo took the one-way flight to Japan, leaving his old life behind, the journey didn’t stop there.

Kyungsoo and Chanyeol were now both thirty-three years old. Chanyeol would be turning thirty-four in the fall and Kyungsoo would also be less than two months after that.

It was two-and-a-half years since the day he landed and stepped his foot at the Narita airport in Tokyo to start his new life. But things were merely beginning now.

 

 

 

It was six in the morning but it was also late July and that meant the sun had been up for over two hours now. Japan wasn’t called the Land of the Rising Sun for no reason, the sun really did rise earlier here if Kyungsoo were to compare it back home in South Korea.

Kyungsoo quickly turned off the phone alarm he used to wake up with almost every morning. The phone itself was barely over a year old and not the same one he had brought along with him when he first moved to Japan.

As time passed, Kyungsoo was not only further leaving his old life but also slowly shedding away the mementos and relics from it. It was now that Kyungsoo slowly gained a perspective and view of what Chanyeol probably had to go through all those years they were separated.

It wasn’t easy and the sense of longing and fondness for the old life did emerge at times, but Kyungsoo kept reminding himself of the weight of the decision he chose to bear, and of the bigger picture.

But Kyungsoo could say he was comfortable and rather happy in this life now, since the day he decided to take the plunge into the raging sea in search of that promised land.

Except, he wasn’t alone and he had Chanyeol with him.  

 

 

Kyungsoo rolled off the firm bed in his room in Chanyeol’s house, that was now their house together. Kyungsoo planted his bare feet firmly on the carpeted floor in his room before quickly walking to the door and heading out his room, ready to start the day.

From the carpeted floor in the room to the bare wooden floorboards in the adjoining corridor, Kyungsoo hastily padded over the surfaces to come up to Chanyeol’s room and knock on the door to wake him up.

Chanyeol answered with a loud grunt of, “I’m awake,” that Kyungsoo could hear from behind his door.

 

 

Out of the seven days in a week, Chanyeol and Kyungsoo probably slept in the same room about three to four times a week. The rest of the days, they slept separately in their own rooms because of Kyungsoo’s insistence that Chanyeol needed to concentrate and practice Go, and that Kyungsoo himself needed to revise on his Japanese.

This week, though, they had slept in their own rooms because of the big Go title tournament coming up soon, and Kyungsoo’s exams which would mark the completion of his Japanese language studies once he passed it.

 

Satisfied with Chanyeol’s response, Kyungsoo continued walking down the corridor and then knocking on the door of the third room down.

This time there was no response from the inhabitant of the room. Kyungsoo continued knocking on the mahogany door, this time even harder and louder.

Finally, Kyungsoo heard the affirmative sound of a male teenager shouting back, “Fine, I’m getting up!”.

 

There were now a total of three people living in Chanyeol’s home. That was a three times increase when compared to how Chanyeol had lived in the big house alone for years since his former mentor, whom he inherited the house from had passed away.

Among the three residents of the large traditional-styled house with a large gated yard, there was Chanyeol, one of the world’s best Go player. Then there was Kyungsoo, a doctor who was still studying Japanese full-time in order to sit for his medical license examinations so he could finally practice medicine in Japan. And lastly, there was Jongin, a seventeen-year-old teenager who still went to high school and was expected to be promoted to a professional Go player in the following year.

 

 

It was a busy week for everyone in the house. Chanyeol was to begin playing in seeded preliminary matches of the national Go tournament, in order to make it to the finals in August and then meet up with his longtime rival, Maruyama.

Kyungsoo’s exams to complete his language studies were later that week too, and Jongin himself had a mid-semester examination in school before the long summer break.

 

 

After waking everyone up, Kyungsoo quickly rushed down to the kitchen and took out the rice pot from the rice cooker that had kept it warm all night. Then, Kyungsoo filled the electric kettle with water before plugging it into the wall socket to boil.

Kyungsoo took out whatever eggs, vegetables and sliced chicken meat that he could find in the fridge to stir-fry in the wok with the rice to make breakfast.

 

Chanyeol came down to the kitchen shortly later, while Kyungsoo was still busy frying away. Chanyeol was standing a few feet behind Kyungsoo still in his sleeping attire, which was an old t-shirt he got for free at some Go event and overused shorts while sporting a bedhead.

“Isn’t Jongin awake yet?” Kyungsoo almost yelled over the loud clanking sounds of the spatula against the wok.

“I haven’t seen him left his room yet. It’s okay, it’s still early. We can wake him up later. He needs the rest.” Chanyeol answered, a bit too low to hear over the sounds, as he scratched the nape of his head.

 

But still, somehow, Kyungsoo managed to catch what Chanyeol was trying to say over the sounds of the spatula hitting on the work, over the sounds of the food sizzling in the wok, over the sounds of the kettle boiling and wheezing.

Chanyeol always spoke lowly and softly but Kyungsoo’s ears had been trained to pick up his voice even in a sea of noise and loudness. Because this was the voice that helped lead Kyungsoo to the home he had now.

Kyungsoo paused and smiled a bit, muttering, “Yeah, you’re right. Can you go and make the tea?”

Kyungsoo promptly returned to his cooking, as Chanyeol did as he was told and switched off the kettle before adding several spoons of grounded tea leaves into it.

 

 

It was actually uncommon for all three of them to be sitting down at the table in the morning and have breakfast together on a weekday. Everyone was often busy with their own thing, but it was expected to be a bit slower and more relaxed once the summer holidays started soon in August.

“You don’t have to send and pick me up from school today. I’ll take the bus. I promised to meet up with my friends at the bus station today too,” Jongin told at the dining table, dressed in his school summer uniform that consisted of just a white dress shirt and black slacks.

“Okay,” Kyungsoo affirmed, looking up from his plate, “Will you get there on time though? Your school is not near.”

“I’ll be fine,” Jongin assured, “It’s not like I’m going to be expelled if I’m late anyway.”

“It’s still important to be punctual and follow school rules. It’s the trait of a good student,” Kyungsoo preached, relating to his own time as a school student.

“He’ll be fine,” Chanyeol softly muttered before feeding himself with a spoonful of fried rice. “If you worry about him being late to school, we’ll just send Jongin to driving school when he turns eighteen next winter so he can get his license.”

Jongin paused, pressing his spoon onto the plate as he pondered a thought before continuing, “-but when I’m old enough to get my license next January, I won’t have to go to school anymore. Only those sitting for their college entrance examinations go back to school after the winter break. I’m not going to college, remember?”

“Oh, right,” Kyungsoo deadpanned, “I keep forgetting that I live in a house with a professional Go player and a future professional.”

“Don’t worry about us, Kyungsoo, we’ll support you,” Jongin teased.

Chanyeol chuckled from his side of the table, and although Kyungsoo was still getting used to Jongin’s snark humor after living with the teenager for over two years now, he admitted that he found it funny at times.

 

 

The three of them left the house at the same time at around a quarter to eight in the morning. Chanyeol gave Jongin some pocket money before the tall teenager went off. They would still meet each other in the evening after school when Jongin would drop by at the association’s building for his daily practice.

As Jongin was not an adult yet and Chanyeol was recognized as his legal guardian while living in Japan, Chanyeol managed Jongin’s income that the latter earned from his own junior level tournaments and competitions.

Under the request of Jongin, Chanyeol with the help of Kyungsoo would send a part of the winning’s money to Jongin’s family back in Korea. Sometimes, Chanyeol would contribute his own money on top of Jongin’s but he would never tell the teenager about it.

 

Jongin’s father had passed away before he even started elementary school, and his mother had struggled to raise him and his two older sisters after that. Jongin played Go at his local society hall while his mother worked and his sisters were in school because there wasn’t anybody to take care of him.

Like Chanyeol, Jongin was shown to be exceptionally skilled and proven to be a prodigy at the game. Soon enough, Jongin was helping make ends meet in his household by winning Go tournaments even at a young age.

When Jongin was fourteen, Jongin’s local Go society contacted Chanyeol to see if he would take Jongin as an apprentice.

Chanyeol was on the fence about taking in an apprentice at that time but he saw a younger version himself in Jongin, and the arrangements were quickly made after that.

 

 

Since Kyungsoo didn’t need to drive Jongin to school that day, he and Chanyeol walked to their destinations since it was close to their home, unlike Jongin’s school.

While Kyungsoo could not practice his profession yet until he had gained fluency in his Japanese language, well enough to sit for a language proficiency exam; he worked part-time in a bookstore when he wasn’t attending his classes.

Due to the relaxed nature of the job, Kyungsoo could read the books to practice his Japanese when he had nothing to do while on duty.

The bookstore in question was on the ground floor of a shop lot, just a few buildings down the street from where the Go association’s headquarters were. In fact, the bookstore itself was owned by Mr. Fujiwara’s family, the Go association’s president.

Kyungsoo had landed the job thanks to Mr. Fujiwara, who had played a big role in helping Kyungsoo move and settle down in Japan. It was one of the few jobs which he could take until he was qualified to sit for his Japanese medical license, which first required him to be a certified proficient speaker of Japanese.

 

Kyungsoo and Chanyeol would take the path between the houses on their way in the morning. Fewer people took this path and it was very quiet in the mornings as most people had left to go to work or school. Although it meant being watchful of the fierce dog that now had a grown litter of equally fierce dogs in the yard, the pair had gotten used to avoiding them.

This path was a bit longer and had more turns to it but they enjoyed taking it nonetheless because of the reticence atmosphere that it provided them, compared to the bustling and louder atmosphere of the path taken by most to Chiyoda’s main business district.

Chanyeol and Kyungsoo would hold each other’s hand, tight and secure at their sides on the daily walk; Chanyeol to the Go association and Kyungsoo to the bookstore. Walking together under the cover of shady green trees that grew along the cemented path in front of rows of houses, that were increasingly growing smaller and closer to each other the closer they got to the business district from the residential district.

 

 

In late July, it was a bit warm and very sunny even early in the morning at this time of the day. It wouldn’t get hotter until next month but then it would also probably be raining very hard especially when typhoon season made its yearly round.

As a professional player who was to compete that day, Chanyeol always dressed formally but skipped his tie and coat for that day. Kyungsoo wore simple jeans and the uniform t-shirt of the bookstore where he was one of the only five staff that worked there.

“By the way, when is Sehun coming to visit again?” Chanyeol asked, bending his head down when they walked passed by one tree with rather low branches that weren’t tall enough to clear the top of Chanyeol’s head.

“He’s coming for a week and a half in late August. Three weeks from now after he gets discharged from military service,” Kyungsoo answered, remembering that Sehun was to visit them for a short holiday next month.

“-right.