Prologue

Kang Younghyun

“She's leaving tomorrow, Hyung.” Kim Wonpil, my younger half-brother and her best friend, leans against the door frame, seemingly wanting to convey a message he's not supposed to know.

“Yeah, I heard. Will you be there to see her off?” I ask as casually as I could, and stopped myself to further inquire whether I could come with him. I flip to another page of The Infinity Gauntlet to appear non-chalant.

“Do you want to come with me?” This time, Wonpil isn't as subtle, with an eyebrow cocked up and that gummy smile plastered on his dumb face.

“Piri, Whatever you're implying –”

“Oh come on, you like her –”

“Please tell me you didn't tell her that.”

“Of course I didn't. But you're so damn slow, I just might.”

And with that, Wonpil goes back to the living room, where he was spending time with Jaehee. Gathering some courage from the comic book I was reading, I stand up and followed Piri, only to see the room empty.

There goes my last chance, I guess.

 

1. Hi, Hello

We've been living without
Knowing each other
With a "Hi"
Now, it's you and me

Lee Jaehee

It's only been two years and yet I don't think I'll ever get used to the peace that is living as a student in one of my dream places, Japan. And it's all going to end in a few weeks. Two more peaceful months before I go back to Korea and start with job hunting and attempt again to become a decent society-contributing adult. I still have a few errands, one of which is to buy gifts for my friends.

My phone rings and wakes me up from my reverie, and speak of the devil who wanted very specific gifts, it's Wonpil. I answer and turn on the video call option.

“Jaehee-yah~~~ How's the master's degree graduate?” Kim Wonpil, my best friend since high school, is a man of gummy smiles and sunshine rolled into one.

“Hey Piri-Wonpiripiri, what's up? Come to Japan and help me pack all theeeeese stuff??” I give him a view of my room's current state, half-filled boxes and folded clothes scattered on the every nook and cranny possible, in the little space that I call my apartment.

“I wish I could, my dear friend. But there's something more important than that.” He flashes his all-teeth smile, the one he uses when he's about to cash in a favor.

I raise my eyebrows and wait for him to reveal his true intentions.

“Uhm, you know that big Pokemon Center in Ikebukuro, right?”

“Yes, and?”

“I heard that there's a special event there, and that there's a limited edition Pokémon stuff toy that I need you to buy for me.” Wonpil says this so fast, I almost didn't understand. He then adds, “I'll pay you when you get home, I promise! So can you like, go right now?”

I'd do anything for Wonpil, and I have nothing better to do than to stare at my boxes and luggages and wish them into being magically packed, so I agree and tell him that I'll leave in half an hour and call him back when I arrive in the center so he can look at the available stuff and let me know what he wanted.

“Thank you soooo much, Jaehee-yah! I owe you one! Make sure you look nice okay? I have to go now, call me later, byeeeee!”

I take a quick shower and put on a fashionable yet weather-appropriate clothing. On my way out the door, I bump into my neighbors and hoobaes from the university here in Japan: Jaehyung, Dowoon, and Sungjin. We all walk down the apartment complex.

“Hey Jae,” I greet Jaehyung, the oldest of the three. They're all on their first year of their respective master's degree, so I am technically they're sunbae.

“Hey Jae, you lookin' good, where are you going on this fine afternoon?” quips Jaehyung.

“Just out for a walk in Ikebukuro. How about the three of you?” I wave a hello to Sungjin and Dowoon. They nod back.

Jae replies in behalf of the group. “Going grocery shopping like the domestic family that we are. Do you have dinner plans? We're cooking tonight!”

“None yet, but I'll message you if I can pop in for a taste.” I wave them good bye and head towards the train station.

An hour after that phone call, there is no special event, nor are there limited edition plushies in this particular Pokemon Center. However, a special, limited edition human being is standing inside it, one named Kang Younghyun.

Kang Younghyun

It's only my second day in Tokyo, and my younger half-brother, Kim Wonpil, pestered me into buying a limited edition plushie for him, in the nearby Pokemon Center. All I have finalized for this month-long sabbatical leave is my lodging for a few days. And thus, with no itinerary in mind, I left my hotel in Ikebukuro, deciding to take a walk and run Piri's errands.

The Pokemon Center is located in one of the floors of Sunshine Tower, and the last time I was in Japan, I went straight there. With time in my hands, I wander around a bit more, and learn that the largest Animate store is in the vicinity as well. Eventually, I go to the center, and lo and behold, there's no such thing as a special event nor a sale on the limited edition plushies that Wonpil was gushing about.

A bit confused on what's going on, I send Wonpil a message. While waiting for his reply, I scroll through instagram, and her photo was first on my feed. Right, she lives in Tokyo. I mused, as if I've forgotten, as if that's not part of the reason why I chose Japan as my vacation destination.

The next few seconds were what some people would describe as a blur, but to me, it seemed to happen in slow motion. First, a notification bubble from Wonpil, “Good luck, hyung! ♥” And then, a familiar voice calls my name, “Younghyun?” I turn around, and see her for the first time in two years, and she walks towards me.

She is bright, like the sun, with her curly hair now longer than when she left, and smiling so enthusiastically, her chinita eyes became those happy smiling eyes behind her wire-rimmed glasses. The slo-mo film ends and she's in front of me, waving a hand across my face.

“Younghyun-ssi? It's you, right? You didn't tell me you were in Japan! How are you?” I must have looked like an idiot, dazed at her and smiling so widely. I snap out of it, and reply, “Jaehee-yah, nice meeting you here! I'm on a sabbatical leave, actually. And since I don't have an itinerary yet, Wonpil made me get him gifts already, saying there's a limited edition plushie on sale today.”

And then it clicks in my brain: Wonpil somehow set this up. Seeing her raise a curious eyebrow, I assume that Piri told her the same thing. And here we are, and here's my chance.

She laugh a bit to herself, and I feel myself smiling as well. There's an awkward and yet comfortable air. She's my younger brother's best friend, and we've had interactions whenever she's in our home, but we're not exactly friends. But the fact that we're two people, who know each other, in this foreign land, somehow makes the conversation lighter.

Setting aside the fact that her best friend and my brother set up this meeting, she accompanies me inside the store while I look around. Pretending to choose a gift for home, I listen to her list down the places I should visit. I just mentioned in passing that I don't have an itinerary and yet there she is, a thoughtful and passionate girl, even offering to email me her excel files of her various escapades in Japan. I briefly wonder who she went with, but dismiss the thought and concentrate on her instead.

“You're not gonna buy anything yet, aren't you?” She always does this squinting with her eyes when she's suspicious of something. It's so adorable, I probably smiled wider than I should.

I admit to her that I haven't picked anything yet, and tell her that since my lodging is in the area, it'll be easy for me to return to this store. She then suggests that we go another place, and my weeb heart almost confessed to her when we arrived in front of the Animate building.

“Jaehee-yah, how did you know that I liked anime?”

“Younghyun-ssi – “

“Please call me Younghyun?”

She looked at me in the eyes for a short time, and cleared . “Okay, uhm, Younghyun. Wonpil tells me every now and then that we watch the same anime and read the same manga, that's why I thought you'd love it here.”

And Wonpil often tells me the same thing about her. We do have a lot in common, and over the past two years, my wingman of a brother has dropped hints of these, and that I should date her single best friend, but I ignored them because of my… issues.

“And you're absolutely correct, thank you for bringing me here, Jaehee-yah.”

After almost an hour of going through the shop's several floors of pure anime bliss, we have a few shopping bags on us already. Once again, I pluck courage from the anime leading characters and made a move, without missing the timing this time.

“Hey Jaehee-yah, you're just finalizing your moving out errands, right? Do you have time to accompany me on some of the itineraries you mentioned earlier?”

Her eyes widen for a fraction of a second, and she was about to say something when her phone rings. She excuses herself and picks up the call.

“Hey Jae," she says this in a sing-song. "What's up?”

There seems to be an inside joke just with the greeting, and it sounds like a male's voice on the other end of the line. Who's this Jae interrupting my timing?

“Oh, the dinner? Hmm.” She eyes me, puts her hands over the phone's receiver, and asks me if I have dinner plans. I shake my head and say no, and she goes back to the phone call. “Yeah, count me in, And I'm bringing a friend, is that okay? Yeah? Cool. See you!”

She apologizes for taking the call, and takes a deep breath. “Yeah, sure, I'll tour you around.”

Lee Jaehee

I'll have to find Wonpil a nice present. But first things first, it's time to make a move, young lady. Be casual, just as you did many times before whenever you're in their house. I tell this to myself a few more times, and I finally call out his name.

“Younghyun!” I wait for him to turn towards my voice, and automatically a huge smile fills my face. We look straight at each other's eyes while I walk closer to him, and there's palpable spark that makes me wonder if it's just my imagination. His feline eyes crinkle at that dazzling smile; at the very least I can assume that he's happy to see me too.

A quick exchange of hellos and I learn that Wonpil worked as transnational cupid, and that Younghyun doesn't have any concrete plans for his month-long stay in this beautiful country.

I remind myself to be casual and don't get too distracted by the way he's staring at me, and to keep eye contact even if it's so hard not to get lost in thought when he's so proximate.

And so I begin our conversation with one of the things I'm confident in: planning a trip.

“I can't emphasize how shocked I am to know that you have a month here and you don't have any itinerary whatsoever.”

“Well I am sorry, Little Miss Planner,” he sports his patented confident smirk, "do you have any suggestions for this lost soul?"

I roll my eyes even though I'm smiling. "I'm going to ignore your mocking tone because you probably know from Piri that I can plan the out of your sabbatical vacation."

I then go on listing places to go, from the basic tourist destinations within Tokyo such as Takea Street, Shibuya crossing, Omotesando, Meiji Shrine, and Tokyo Metropolitan Building; to the various parks to in Yoyogi, Shinjuku, and Setagaya. Meanwhile, he browses the store, and I fall in step to match his pace.

Younghyun then picks up a Team Rocket Pikachu plushie from the shelf. He turns to me, holds the toy to his face level and says in an annoying and playful tone, "Jaehee-yah~ But you're forgetting the most important thing."

I scowl at the childishness but laugh anyway. "Tokyo is a large place, Younghyun-ssi. There is an abundance of restaurants, I'll let you figure out what kind of food crawl you want to do."

He puts back the plushie into the shelf, and smiles so brightly. He clutches a fistful of his shirt on top of where his heart is supposed to be. "I'm so touched that you know how important food is to me."

"I've been in your household too many times not to know, don't flatter your self too much." Yes, I was reflecting the smile on his face.

He then walks on again, browsing the shelves. I stare at his back and wonder why it's just now that we're interacting like this. Back at home, he almost always leaves Piri and I alone to ourselves. He's always the first to greet me whenever I visit, we exchange pleasantries, he sometimes plays the guitar while Piri smashes the keyboard, but that's about it. We've never talked alone for this long, and I only saw him being annoying towards his younger brother. So yes, this is new. It's like the universe has allowed for me to rediscover Kang Younghyun.

"Jaehee-yah?" I've always liked it when he calls out my name.

"Yes, Younghyun-ssi?" I respond.

He raises one brow. "Try it without the formalities? You're just a year younger than me, and we're in Japan. Call me Younghyun."

I try and fail at this several times. "Maybe a bit more later? And you were about to ask me something?"

He puts the issue to rest for now. "Later. Okay, I'll hold on to that." He winks at me. What is this sorcery??? "I really don't have a question actually, I just wanted to call your name."

I pretend not to get giddy at that remark, and instead say, "You're not gonna buy anything yet, aren't you?"

If there's anything that Wonpil always say to me whenever he plays cupid, it's that Younghyun and I have a lot in common. And Japan's anime and manga industry are overlapping elements of our venn diagram.

And so I bring him to the largest Animate store in Tokyo, which sits right across Sunshine Tower. Once we entered the building, Younghyun was in a euphoric fanboy state.

“Jaehee-yah!!! How did you know that I liked anime?” His eyes were glinting with such boyish charms.

"Younghyun-ssi," I start, but he interrupts me.

“Please call me Younghyun?”

I look straight into his eyes, and, not wanting to break the mood, I finally manage to call him as he wanted. “Okay, uhm, Younghyun." I smile a bit wider, and proceeded to explain how his brother was the one who casually leaks the information. 

Exploring the store, Younghyun talks about anime and manga and animated films and light novels. It was fascinating to converse about fan theories and opinions on the latest chapters and episodes. Kang Younghyun is not only physically attractive, he is also a smart man. God knows how much I'm a er for those types.

An hour later, I am browsing my phone while waiting for him by the entrance, as he finished paying for the anime goods he bought. I see him in my peripheral and I look up at him. He was fidgeting, and suddenly stares at me and says, “Hey Jaehee-yah, you're just finalizing your moving out errands, right? Do you have time to accompany me on some of the itineraries you mentioned earlier?”

I'm pretty sure the surprise is apparent on my face, and thus I was thankful for whoever called at that exact moment. It was Jae, and he wanted to confirm if I am to have dinner with them. I invite Younghyun as well, it'll be nice for him to meet other Koreans since he's staying for a month. I end the call.

I turn to face Younghyun, took a deep breath, and answered his prior question. "Yeah, sure, I'll tour you around.”