Tokyo in Summer. Nothing beats the humidity of it. The temperature reaches 33C and people who are usually eager to walk everywhere decide to stop by the nearest convenience store just to catch up some cold air.

Kim Jinhwan is one of them. He's Korean, as you can tell from the name, but he was here since three years ago, planning to study first but completely strayed from it once he realized that he might be not interested in Japanese Literature after all. He was a smart kid, though, he thought maybe it was great to pursue education abroad and chance to study Japanese Literature came out of nowhere from a random scholarship offer in his school, and he excelled from just learning basic Japanese for three months.

His parents own a small but thriving hotel back in Jeju, and fortunately are easy going ones. They don't have problem with their own son slacking off in Tokyo, actually, they just don't know the details. They know their son is bit late in finishing his study but since he never asks for money from them they think he's doing just fine.

Little that they know he's one of the top hosts in one club in Kabukicho. The pay is great, and during the weekend he also DJs a midnight show in Tokyo FM. He's always interested in talking with many kind of people. Especially all weird otakus that always contribute their stories. "Lonely Hearts Club" is the name of the show. Mainly it's about some otakus that express their concerns about forming relationship with real human beings, or sometimes people with general anxiety that their lives might be just slipping away.

Everyone feels a bit lonely when the midnight comes. Jinhwan is not an exception. Though his jobs require him to be in contact with a lot of people, he still feels empty inside. Maybe though he's interested in people, he never be a part of it. Sometimes it feels like he can't genuinely connect with them.

Now he's trying to connect with foods on the shelf though. He's been deliberately standing there for 10 minutes just to enjoy the aircon behind him. A pretty hand suddenly reached from his side, grabbing a melonpan away. He turns his head to see who's the owner of that hand. Much to his surprise, it's his loud neighbor Koo June. Jinhwan didn't realize that he has such pretty, long hands. Maybe he hates June so much that he can't care less about the tall boy.

Jinhwan is disgusted at the sight of sweating June devouring the melonpan to bits before he even pays for it. While June is equally shocked when he sees that small face of his neighbor. He's pretty scared of him since Jinhwan once filed a complaint against June to their landlord for being too loud.

"Aa... it's you!", June opens his mouth that full with melonpan and ready to run away.
"You're the reason why Japan and Korea have horrible relationship, you know!!", Jinhwan screams in Korean then realizes, that was also a very un-Japanese thing to do. Embarrassed, he storms off the convenience store to somehow catch up with June.

"Yah, you stupid hillbilly why did you eat it before you pay it?", Jinhwan screams once again to June, out of his character, to compensate with his embarrassment.
"Why?! I'm just so hungry, the ahjumma* cashier had no problem anyway", June exclaims in both Japanese and Korean.
"Ah... ahjumma?", Jinhwan has to stop for awhile to process the nonsense.
"Yeah, what? oh, it's... obasan**?", June wonders as he looks to his short neighbor. He doesn't know why it matters, though, to stop like this in the middle of the street in scorching heat, with someone that he doesn't necessarily like.

"Bwahahahaha", Jinhwan bursts into laugh.
"Ahjumma ahahaha", he keeps laughing.

"Why?", June giggles, he doesn't know what's so funny about it, but he laughs anyway.
"Obasan?", Jinhwan reenacts cluless June. He doesn't know why is it so funny too... the fact that June unnecessarily corrected it just sounded so stupid.

"Why did you talk to me both in Japanese and Korean, you know exactly I'm Korean like you", Jinhwan catches his breath and sits under a big tree, trying to collect his mind after that tiring laughter.
"I don't know, when I first saw you I thought you were Japanese and it's still ingrained in my mind. Meeting you is always awkward", June sighs and sits beside Jinhwan.

Jinhwan observes June closely. He's still in his school uniform complete with his bag on his shoulder. His trousers are navy blue while his sneakers is Nike Air Jordan in Red Suede. They're quite alright, Jinhwan thinks, IF he changed the purple lacing. He wears a polo shirt that bit unusual, on his left chest there's his school's crest. He attends an International School. An expensive one it seems... but why does he live in Ueno Royal Heights alone? why is he not with his parents? There's no international school around their neighborhood either. There's so many questions but then he doesn't want to be invasive.

"But I look totally Korean", Jinhwan replies after a long while. June looks at him from the corner of his eyes while he's still busy gulping the water.
"Who knows... we look pretty much the same if we don't tell", he says casually.
"Is that so", Jinhwan wonders.

"And look at your style, no one wears those loose trousers back in Seoul", June averts his attention to Jinhwan's fashion sense.
"It's 'wide-legged'", Jinhwan corrects him.
June pauses to think about it; "Yeah, it's ridiculous"
"It's vintage you know", Jinhwan gets bit annoyed.
"No one buys vintage in Seoul, Everyone buys clothes in subway stations! for such cheap price! here you pay for what, 4000 yen for an old tacky jacket? you can get two new ones in Seoul!", June suddenly protests for no reason.

Jinhwan looks at him trying to comprehend his thought process. Why does a rich kid even bother about prices.

"Do you miss home?", he finally asks.
"Yeah... I miss my friends. It's my third year in Tokyo, my schoolmates are alright but I don't know. I never feel belong here. It's weird, isn't it? Tokyo is much cleaner than Seoul, everyone is orderly and nice... but at the same time, it feels distant. I've been thinking lately... maybe I'm Korean after all", June spreads his arms to support his body as he leans back and looks up to the sky.
"Maybe it's because you don't try", Jinhwan says.
"I've tried. But it's just too bothersome. I don't think about it much actually, maybe it's my current life situation. So it feels lame anywhere anyway", June sighs.

"What is this feeling?", Jinhwan wonders. It's bit creepy but at the back of his mind he asks himself if he finally finds someone that he can connect to.

"Are you skipping class now?", Jinhwan asks.
"Yeah, do you want to lecture me now, since you're older?", June sneers.
"I look a lot younger than you, though", Jinhwan retorts.
"Pffft who cares. I bet you're just a jobless bum. Only a jobless bum who has too much time to file a complaint about me to our landlord", June pauses, realizing that he just spills his repressed thoughts all this time. He doesn't have the courage to see Jinhwan in the eyes.
"Cause you're so loud. It's just about normal that I filed a complaint", against June's premature judgement, Jinhwan is so calm about it. There's something annoying yet relaxing about his composure.

"I'm not that loud. You have nothing to do so you get distracted by littlest thing", June defends himself, still putting up a tough act.
"There are many reports about you from other neighbors though, if I want to be serious about it, probably you'll be kicked out soon", Jinhwan says, still with his calm composure.
"Tsk. Don't tell me how to live my life", June turns his body away from Jinhwan and he drinks once again.

And yet, weirldly, he doesn't leave. He thinks why did he get so riled up. His schoolmates are probably fun and all but he never talks so candidly like this with anyone. He hates it but somehow this talks he's having with Jinhwan right now is comforting. He didn't know that just talking about mundane stuffs can be so liberating. But now that he turned his body like this it becomes awkward, does it?

"I have to go", June stands up and faces Jinhwan once again.
"Already? I thought we can be friends now so you can sing as loud as you want", those words just slip out of Jinhwan's mouth. He wants to know how June reacts to that.

It's done for June though. Jinhwan's cheeky response left him completely exposed. He chuckles and smiles at him.
"Just kidding. I have another business to do as well", says Jinhwan, descalates everything, suddenly he's afraid of the prospect that he created himself.

June just looks at him for a long while. Did he just tease me? he wonders.
"Alright, see you around", he waves his hand as his face can't hide his annoyance.

Jinhwan smiles as he walks away.  He likes people in general, but this time he finds someone that actually interest him. Really, really interest him.
 

*ahjumma: aunty in Korean
**obasan: aunty in Japanese